Far and Away
by Becrux
Summary: Jack and Sam get stranded on another planet and must try to find a way home while dealing with their feelings for each other and just trying to survive. SJ in later chapters. WIP
1. The Briefing

Disclaimers: I don't own them, wish I did, but sadly don't.

Spoilers: References to Window of Opportunity, Chimera, Affinity, but really, any episode up to and including season 8 might be referenced. Takes place either in season 8 before Threads or in an AU where some of the events of Threads did not happen.

* * *

Chapter 1 – The Briefing 

General O'Neill entered the briefing room from his office to join Colonel Carter, Daniel Jackson, Teal'c and Bra'tac. He quickly covered his smirk at seeing Daniel squirming in his chair, practically beside himself with excitement. 'Oh this is going to be fun', he thought to himself. 'Probably lots of talk about rocks.'

"Bra'tac, buddy, what brings you to our little corner of the galaxy?"

"O'Neill, it is good to see you again. Zimbar, of the rebel jaffa, contacted me with information which may be of some value in our mutual cause."

"Does it involve getting us some big, honkin' space guns?" Jack briefly looked at Carter as he asked and was rewarded for it with one of her killer smiles which always disarmed him momentarily.

"You never know", a way too cheerful Daniel offered, snapping him out of his reverie.

"Zimbar discovered a planet with a building of the Ancients. There are many unknown, advanced devices throughout the building as well as extensive writings on the walls discussing many devices of power." Bra'tac explained.

"Zimmy reads Ancient?"

"He does not. The site appears to be under the oversight of another group of people who told him of their discoveries."

Daniel chimed in, "That's where we come in. There seems to be a scientific expedition from another planet there now. They've laid claim to the site, but have apparently heard of us. They say they'd be happy to share any knowledge obtained with us if we help them."

Teal'c added to the discussion, "DanielJackson's mastery of the Ancient's language is well known, as is ColonelCarter's skill in working with new technology. It is not surprising these people would request their help."

"What about you, T? You're famous, too."

"I would merely be going along for the ride, as it were."

Bra'tac added, "Your leadership is well known as well, O'Neill. It has been requested that you also go to the site to work out a diplomatic arrangement with this group."

With the grin he always had when about to blow something up, O'Neill said, "There's a request for me to go off-world?" The grin faded quickly when he realized, "It's a diplomatic meeting. Maybe I should bring SG-9 along?"

"Jack! These people specifically asked for you. We don't want to overwhelm them with a bunch of military people."

"Uh, Dannyboy, have you ever noticed the stars on my uniform?"

"Yeah, but you're not, you know, SG-9."

Deciding to have as much fun with Daniel as possible, O'Neill continued. "Well, be that as it may. SG-1 has a busy schedule right now, and I've got all those important menu item selections to make for the commissary, not to mention wading through my backlog of Carter's and your mission reports - do you think you might be able to tone down the 16 syllable words just a bit in the future?"

"What are you saying, Jack?"

"I'm saying, it might be better, if this is an extended operation, like it sounds, to send SG-9, Felger and maybe Nyan. He could use some fresh air. And you know how much we'd all benefit from having Felger and his little disasters on a different planet entirely."

Daniel couldn't believe what he was hearing, "Ja-ck!"

"Dan-iel!"

"You can't do that!"

"I can, I'm The Man now."

"You can't."

"Can."

"Can't"

"Can."

Carter stepped in before the whining started to get even more irritating. "Sir, we don't know what might be at this site. We can't just send any group of people we choose hoping that we won't offend some potential allies by ignoring their request for specific people."

"OK, OK. So we've got old scribbles to interpret for you, Danny, doohickeys for Carter and a boring meeting for me. Don't say I never did anything for you, kids. Bra'tac, Teal'c, make the arrangements. Carter, where exactly is this planet?"

"We've designated it P4X-559. It's almost on the opposite edge of the galaxy from Earth. It's actually surprising that Zimbar stumbled upon it, since it's very far from most occupied planets in the gate system."

* * *

At the newly discovered building of the Ancients on planet P4X-559: 

"Master! Zimbar has returned. The arrangements have been made. They will be here tomorrow."

"Good. Once that shol'va Zimbar has left, pack up all of the devices and equipment. By this time tomorrow, the galaxy will finally be rid of the most meddlesome of the Tau'ri."


	2. P4X559

Chapter 2 - P4X-559

SG-1 was in the gear up room getting ready. Teal'c was quietly putting his pack together while listening to Daniel's non-stop, caffeine enhanced chatter.

"Can you imagine what we'll find? I mean, if the site is everything Zimbar claims - A building of the Ancients, complete and in tact, writings as well as multiple devices?"

As he continued, Sam shook her head and chuckled to herself as she reflected on the difference between the two men she loved as brothers. She wondered if Teal'c was really as interested in all Daniel had to say or if it was just that all of those years of deep meditation allowed him to tune the enthusiastic man out completely.

She turned back to her pack and opened one of the side pockets. Yup, it was still there. She had first started carrying the yo-yo in her pack after P3X-584, years ago. She found that then-Colonel O'Neill would agree to longer stays for her and Daniel to 'play' with rocks and doohickeys if he wasn't bored. After his promotion to General and off of SG-1, she continued to carry the toy in her pack. She found it comforting to have it with her and would pull it out during watches off-world sometimes, not to play with, but just to have something to remind her of the General.

If the site WAS everything Zimbar claimed, she'd want as much time there as possible. Since most of her equipment was going to the planet packed on the FRED, she determined she had room in her pack for the big guns. She dug into the bottom of her locker and pulled out the gameboy and solar battery charger and put them in her pack as well.

* * *

As SG-1 entered the gate room they saw General O'Neill all geared up and just about to leave the control room as the gate started to spin.

"Now remember, Walter..."

"Yes, sir?"

Holding up his index finger to emphasize the point, acting so much like a parent talking to his child, "No parties while I'm gone." The poor Sergeant stared at him trying to formulate a proper response to his CO. "Especially no parties with cake."

"Y-yes, sir, I mean, no, sir - no parties, sir."

* * *

O'Neill strode into the gate room rubbing his hands together. "Ready for some fun, campers?"

The members of SG-1 tried not to smirk at each other over the fact that the leader of the SGC seemed almost as enthusiastic about the mission and going off-world for a diplomatic mission as Carter and Daniel were at the prospect of studying new things.

After the kawoosh of the wormhole settled into the familiar blue puddle, they sent the FRED with all of the equipment through and then walked through themselves.

* * *

On the other side of the wormhole things were strangely quiet. The MALP they had sent through earlier hadn't shown any people up and about. O'Neill just attributed that to the early hour. He also figured that if these scientists were anything like his, they were busy working in the building, oblivious to their arrival.

Looking around, he could see the gate was near the end of a large clearing about 20 feet from a steep drop-off to a small streambed about 15 feet below. About 500 feet away in the other direction across a field covered with flowers of all colors was a large greenish building. This was presumably the Ancient site, since it was the only structure around. Around the edges of the clearing were lots of trees with some tall hills to the east and to the west, even taller hills.

As they started walking towards the building, O'Neill couldn't help thinking that if it were more of an emerald green, he'd feel like Dorothy walking through the poppies to Oz. "Well, off to see the wizard!"

When they were halfway through the field, Teal'c suddenly activated his zat as if in preparation to shoot.

"What's wrong, T?"

"I am uneasy at the quiet, O'Neill. It seems that if Zimbar was correct in his assessment of this site, we should hear people working."

"Well, when archaeologists aren't digging or uncovering something, we do tend to be quiet when studying what we've found. I don't imagine they've had to do much digging here", Daniel offered.

Looking around again, O'Neill spoke up, "Yeah, but still, just the same Daniel, you do tend to set up tents or shelters or something to stay in while doing your studying, I don't see anything but that building. Let's be careful."

With that, they cautiously walked through the rest of the field and entered the building.


	3. Surprise!

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! It's more than I expected for my first attempt at this. I'll try to keep the chapters coming fairly quickly.

Chapter 3 - Surprise!

The building consisted of a large room, about 200 feet long by 75 feet wide. There were two rows of columns, all of which were covered in inscriptions. The walls were also covered in Ancient writings. There were pedestals and tables throughout, most of which were bare. Looking at the dust patterns on the tables, it looked like someone recently took many items from the room, hastily clearing out the best of the devices. There were some advanced looking pieces of equipment left on some of the tables and pedestals, all of which were inactive, except one object on a pedestal at the back of the room.

Upon seeing the treasure trove of writings, Daniel forgot all of his caution, paid no attention to the fact that there were no people in the room and started excitedly reading the nearest wall.

"This is incredible! Look at this place!"

Teal'c merely raised an eyebrow at his teammate and then quickly swept his gaze across the rest of the room. O'Neill and Carter also carefully looked around the room, Carter a little awed as well by the sight of so many advanced, unknown devices in one room.

The item that drew the attention of the soldiers was the blinking object on the pedestal at the back of the room. It was roughly the size and shape of a soccer ball, metallic, with multi-colored blinking lights around its circumference. They cautiously made their way to the object to determine its purpose.

Carter found her voice first, "Teal'c, those look like goa'uld symbols, not Ancient." She was referring to a pattern of flashing symbols along the top of the object.

"Indeed."

O'Neill knew without asking what it was, but had to confirm it anyway. "Teal'c, any idea what this is?"

"Whatever it is, it is currently counting downwards. I would guess that it is an explosive device. We have approximately 30 minutes before the countdown is complete."

"For crying out loud, do you know how to stop it?"

"I am unfamiliar with this type of device."

"Sir, I would like to see if I can stop it."

"OK Carter, you have 20 minutes. T, you and Daniel head to the gate and go back home, but hold the door open for us when you get to the other side." Looking at Daniel across the room unpacking his camera, O'Neill called out. "Daniel! Head back now."

"Jack - we need to start cataloging this place! It's amazing! It appears to be some sort of museum of technology."

"Not now - we have a bomb here."

Daniel raised and lowered his eyebrows a couple of times while processing what was just said. Ever the scientist on a quest for new knowledge, he asked the next logical question, "How much time before it goes off?"

"Not enough! Now get out of here."

"Ja-ck!"

"Now!"

With that, he quickly started panning his camera around the room.

"Daniel! Now!"

Reluctantly he picked up his gear and ran out of the room with Teal'c.

"Carter, are you sure you know what you're doing?"

Looking around the room at the writings and devices that would be lost if the bomb were allowed to explode, Carter replied, "Not really, sir. But I can at least take a look at it."

"OK. As soon as they're through the gate, see what you can do. But no reckless chances! I'm not losing the smartest person on our planet to a gould bomb."

After a couple of minutes, Teal'c signaled they were going through the gate. Carter took a deep breath and started to pry the cover off of the bomb.

* * *

Teal'c walked through the gate behind Daniel, making sure to leave the end of his Zat'nikatel remaining in the wormhole to leave it open for O'Neill and ColonelCarter. After just a moment, the wormhole disengaged, cutting off the top of his Zat and leaving a confused and concerned jaffa standing on the ramp. 


	4. Boom

A/N – Hey – Thanks again for all the great reviews, I really appreciate it. On with the story...

* * *

Chapter 4 - Boom

As soon as Carter took the cover off of the bomb, two things happened. First, the timer went into hyperspeed, and second, unknown to them, the gate shutdown.

O'Neill and Carter looked at each other briefly. "Carter?"

Quickly scanning the crystals inside the device, hoping for some immediate inspiration, Carter started to feel the adrenaline laced fear creeping up her spine. Memories left from Jolinar allowed her to understand the goa'uld countdown now only gave her a few precious minutes to stop the device.

O'Neill was a little more insistent this time, "Carter!"

When she made no response other than to murmur something to herself as she looked at the bomb's innards, O'Neill demanded, "Get to the gate, now - that's an order!"

Knowing there was no time to voice a protest, let alone try to diffuse the alien device, Carter took one last look at all of the other devices she wouldn't get to play with. She wondered briefly if she could grab and carry any back with her. At a glare from her CO, she grabbed her pack and ran for the gate with the General.

They exited the building at a full run and started across the field of flowers. Colors whipped by as the only sound Carter could hear was her heart pounding in her ears, her only thoughts were of getting to safety with the General and a realization that failing to secure the device might cost her more than some new knowledge of alien technology.

When they saw the gate was no longer active, O'Neill yelled a few choice obscenities and told Carter to get to the DHD and dial home.

"Sir, we may not have enough time and we can't risk the shock wave getting though to Earth."

His shoulders slumped as he realized they were doomed. "OK, just... run!"

They ran toward the drop-off on the other side of the gate. Just as they started to slow by the edge of the drop, the bomb went off. There was a deafening explosion and an immediate feeling of intense heat. They were blown over the edge just as they had started to jump. Landing with an ungraceful thud 15 feet below, O'Neill grunted at his protesting knees. He then dove on top of Carter to try to offer whatever protection he could.

The ground beneath them shook as debris rained down on them. For a brief moment, O'Neill was afraid they would be buried alive, but then lost consciousness after a large rock struck him in the head.

* * *

"Sir?" It wasn't much more than a whisper. Carter had a small pocket of air around her head, but the dead weight of O'Neill's unconscious body and whatever debris was on top of them made it hard for her to breath and talk. "Are you OK? Sir?"

Lying face down made it nearly impossible to work at the obstacles on top of her. She started to wriggle around, trying to turn around to work at getting out from under him. As she struggled, fear started to take control. What if he had given his life to save hers? She wouldn't be able to live with that. The fear that she could taste at the back of her throat every time she'd seen him injured in the past started to take control. As the air around her started getting heavier, the soldier in her took control again, knowing it was up to her to save them both.

She was able to turn around and after a few moments of struggling, she managed to free an arm. There was a lot of loose debris and dirt covering them. If she didn't get out quickly, they would suffocate. Being buried alive billions of miles from home on another planet was not the way she wanted things to end. There were too many things she still wanted to do in her life. Too many things left unsaid.

With her free arm she managed to create an air hole. Greedily drinking in the sweet, fresh air, she relaxed for a few seconds, but only a few. She then worked at surveying the form on top of her. The light from the new hole allowed her to see that his face was right next to hers. What she wouldn't give to see those beautiful brown eyes gazing into hers right now. She felt a shallow breath on her cheek. He was only unconscious. Yeah, only - as if being unconscious under so much dirt and rock was a good thing. "Sir? Can you hear me?" No response. The heat of his body against hers was reassuring. She lightly brushed her fingertips along his cheek, it was warm, his skin smoother than she had imagined it would be. And in a small voice, barely a whisper. "Jack? Please wake up."

Using her free hand she started slowly pushing the dirt and rocks off of them. As she cleared an area of his body, she would feel for broken bones or other obvious injuries as best she could in her awkward position. He had a large bump on the back of his head with a lot of drying blood around it, but other than that and some scratches and abrasions, his upper body and arms seemed to have escaped major injury.

It was slow going, but after some time she managed with great difficultyto crawl out from under him and dig the rest of him out. As she checked his legs for injuries, she heard a cough and a low moan. "Please tell me I don't have a broken leg you'll have to set."

Relief instantly washed over her at hearing his voice. She couldn't help but smile. "Sir. How are you feeling?" She used her flashlight to check his pupil response. "Any nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, numbness?"

"I have one hell of a headache and feel like a house landed on me, but other than that I'm just peachy."

"Well, I don't think you have a concussion, and I didn't find any broken bones. I do want to clean up some of those cuts you've got."

"What about you, Carter? Are you injured at all?"

"I'm fine, sir. You protected me from most of the debris. You didn't have to do that, but, thank you."

"What about that on your arm?"

Looking down at her arm, she saw a pretty nasty gash that she hadn't been aware of in her struggle to free them.

Carter found her pack among the rubble and pulled out her first aid kit. She spent some time cleaning up and bandaging their wounds, while O'Neill for the most part just stayed where he was without moving.

"Are you OK to climb up to the gate and go home, sir?"

Looking down at his feet for a moment, he lay his head back on the ground, "Damn."

Immediately Carter was concerned that she had missed an injury. "What's wrong, sir?"

"I knew it felt like a house landed on me, my ruby slippers are gone. We'll have to get home the normal way."

When he got no response to his lame attempt at humor, he continued, "Yeah, I think I can manage, Colonel." The drop over the edge made his temperamental knees ache badly and he didn't want to have to stand up, but he wasn't about to admit that to Carter. All he needed was to get back home and have a nice, long, relaxing soak in a hot bath. Tomorrow, he'd be as good as new.

The climb out of their spot wasn't too bad. It took less than half an hour to find the easiest way and get back up to the area where the stargate had been. They were not prepared for the sight that met them. Due to their relative ease of escape from harm, they had assumed that the explosion hadn't been that bad. They were wrong.

The pretty flowering field with the large building in it that they had left behind just a couple of hours before was replaced with a huge crater filled and surrounded by the aftermath of destruction. There was rubble from the building everywhere, along with bits and pieces of shiny objects that had once been parts of the equipment the building housed. There were small fires here and there with black smoke billowing into the air.

As officers in the US Air Force, they'd both seen destruction like this before. Hell, they'd even caused destruction like this. What they hadn't expected was that the gate would be gone.

It was nowhere to be seen. A memory of the view of the meteor crater on Edora, came unbidden into O'Neill's mind. His shoulders slumped as he tried to shake those thoughts from his mind. He'd been stuck there for three months and the only reason he finally did make it home was because Carter had worked non-stop that whole time on a way to bring him back. Now she was just as stuck as he was.


	5. SGC

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews. I'm overwhelmed by the positive response to my little story.

* * *

Chapter 5 - SGC 

Teal'c looked down at the remains of the zat in his hand and then back at gate raising his one eyebrow. He didn't know what could have happened. Had the bomb gone off right after he stepped through the gate? Surely there would have been a shock wave or energy surge on this end if that had been the case.

"Teal'c? What happened? Why did the gate shutdown? Where are Jack and Sam?" Daniel started to get frantic worrying about his friends back on the planet with a bomb and no open wormhole to escape through.

Colonel Reynolds, who had been left in command came into the gate room. "You just left a little while ago. What happened? Where's the rest of your team? Dr. Jackson? Teal'c?"

"They are still on the planet. There was a timed explosive device which ColonelCarter was to try to disable while we were to come back here and hold the stargate open for them. I do not know why the stargate shut down."

Colonel Reynolds briefly looked at the remains of the zat Teal'c was holding. It had a wisp of smoke curling from the edge of it. He called up to the control room, "Dial up P4X-559!"

"ColonelReynolds, if O'Neill and ColonelCarter need to escape, they will not be able to do so if we open a wormhole to their planet from our stargate."

"You're right Teal'c. Belay that last order! How long do you feel we should we wait before we try to establish contact?"

"The timer was set for approximately 25 minutes from now. If they do not return by that time, we should be prepared to send a rescue mission at that time."

Still concerned for his best friends, Daniel's mind was working overtime. "It's possible they shut down the gate on their end. Maybe they were afraid of damage from the bomb coming through to Earth. They might have decided to escape to a different planet, just to be safe."

Knowing that his friends could not have reached the gate so quickly and shut it down to dial another planet, Teal'c did not want to destroy Daniel's hopes. "That is quite possible, DanielJackson. If that is the case, then, we should still expect to hear from them within 30 minutes if they have survived."

Colonel Reynolds made his decision. "OK, we'll wait half an hour. If we don't hear from the General or Colonel by then, we'll dial up the planet. Be prepared to go with the rescue team at that time."

* * *

After 30 minutes, Colonel Reynolds, Teal'c and Daniel gathered in the control room. SG-3 and a medical team with two gurneys covered with equipment were waiting in the gate room. There had been no sign of the General or Carter so they asked Sergeant Harriman to dial the gate. 

"Chevron 6 engaged... Chevron 7... will not lock. We weren't able to establish a connection, sir."

Daniel looked at Teal'c, deep concern etched into every feature of his face.

"OK Sergeant, it's possible the General was trying to dial us, or had his gate open to a different planet, keep trying every 15 minutes until you get through or until I tell you to stop."

"Yes, sir."

With that Colonel Reynolds nodded at Teal'c and Daniel and went to his office to ponder what they would do if they couldn't get through to P4X-559.


	6. Rain

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews – on with the story...

* * *

Chapter 6 - Rain

They just stood there for several moments, looking at the destruction before them. O'Neill felt the need to ease the somber mood to bring up his 2IC's spirits, but for once didn't think one of his typical wise cracks would be appropriate. He cleared his throat and spoke softly, "It could be worse."

Carter turned slightly to give her CO an incredulous look. Then she continued to scan the area, thinking the whole time, 'This cannot be happening, this cannot be happening.'

O'Neill continued, "We could be dead." He then shifted his gaze to his feet and said more quietly, "Or, even worse, one of us could be dead leaving the other to face this alone."

Carter only spent a few moments overwhelmed by despair at their present situation, what he had just said hit her like a train. It was only a couple of hours ago that she was afraid she'd lost him. Then her military training and logical mind kicked in. She steeled herself against bad thoughts and started working on possible solutions. A fleeting thought about the old question 'if you were stranded on a deserted island who would you pick to be with?' crossed her mind. It brought a faint, grim smile to her lips as she realized the man on top of her list was stuck here with her. OK, don't think about that - concentrate on the problem at hand... "Well, sir, we've seen that it's very difficult to actually destroy a stargate. So this one is probably just buried. The DHD is another matter, but if we could just dig out the gate, the SGC could at least establish a connection and send help."

Looking at the enormous crater filled with brick, rocks, chunks of metal and small fires, which dominated the landscape, O'Neill nodded his head. "OK, Colonel, where do you think we should start?"

"Judging by the source of the blast, the shape of the crater and my estimate of where the gate had been before, we should probably start looking through that pile of rubble over there." Carter pointed to a huge mound of dirt, rock and smoking debris about 20 feet away from where they were standing.

"OK. But first, we scout around the area and make sure there are no unfriendlies around. Also, as that's a rather large hill to dig through, it could take us a while, so we should find a good place to set up camp."

Thankful to be able to start working on improving their situation, Carter agreed.

While the FRED and all of the equipment it had on it was destroyed in the blast, they still had their packs and their weapons, so they readied their P-90s and started heading for the tree line.

After a few paces, O'Neill slowed for a moment and scanned around the area in a complete circle. He walked another few steps and then stopped and looked around again.

"Carter?"

Carter stopped and turned when she heard his voice further behind her than expected. A look of concern crossed her face as she wondered what had stopped him. "Yes, sir?"

Looking around again, hoping his next question wouldn't make him sound crazy, "Do you smell chicken?"

With that, she immediately smiled at him they way she always did when he acted confused at something he didn't understand. She knew that most times, his confusion was just an act to divert attention away from his true intellect, but she always played along and humored him just the same. "Yes, sir."

She started to turn and start walking again, when he shook his head and called, "Wait!"

Carter stopped and turned, still smiling at her CO.

"You don't find that a bit strange? I mean, I didn't notice any birds around before the bomb went off or anything like that and there's certainly no houses or restaurants around."

"Well, sir, I figure that small fire over there is probably burning some of the combustibles that were stowed on the FRED. That would include the extra MRE's we had packed on it. You're probably smelling Daniel's macaroni and cheese dinner." With that, she gave him her most dazzling smile and turned towards the trees.

* * *

They spent the afternoon scouting around the surrounding forest, constantly scanning the ground for tracks and the trees and nearby area for movement of any kind. As they traveled, they started seeing tracks from smaller animals in the dirt which resembled hoof marks as well as some paw tracks, similar to that of a fox. They also spotted a couple of prints from a larger animal, but they were obscured by grasses and did not look familiar to them. They weren't humanoid, so they weren't too concerned about them at the moment, and just filed the information away in their minds to keep an eye out for larger animals. There were no indications of any humans, goa'uld or jaffa in the area.

Late in the afternoon, as they were exploring the forest near the eastern hills, the sky opened up with a torrential rainstorm. They headed to the hills to see what kind of shelter they could find there. After some searching along the base of a cliff face they found a shallow cave. It wasn't much, but would provide some shelter from the elements. It was also only about a half kilometer from the crater, providing easy access to their work site.

There were some dead branches and brush in the opening of the cave. O'Neill gathered up the dry wood and built a small fire to try to warm them up and help them dry off. Once the fire was going pretty well he turned to Carter to see her shivering slightly.

"Come here." O'Neill offered Carter his arms to help warm her up until the fire was able to dry them off a little better. She gratefully entered his warm embrace, put her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. She quickly started to feel better and stopped shivering almost instantly. O'Neill was rubbing her back and arms. The only sounds were that of the crackling fire and the rain just outside the cave. It had an almost hypnotic effect on the couple.

He could smell the scent of her shampoo from her damp hair. He thought about suggesting she take her wet jacket off, fully realizing how wet her tee shirt probably was under it. After a few moments, his motions started to slow and become gentler to the point where he was just caressing her, moving in slow circles up and down her back. She pulled her head back from his chest slightly to look into his face. Their eyes locked, both seeing a desire in the other's eyes that had been masked for so long. A shiver went down Carter's spine.

O'Neill managed to break the spell first. He stood back from her, cleared his throat and pointed to her pack on the other side of the cave. "If you've got a set of dry clothes in there, you might want to change into them before you catch a cold. I'll go out and see if I can't find some more wood for the fire that's not yet too wet out there. I'll keep my radio on."

He quickly turned and left the cave. There were no shower facilities on the planet, but a drenching rainstorm was almost as good as a cold shower any day, and he so needed one at this point.


	7. Conversations

A/N: Sorr about the delay - one word - work. Thanks for the reviews!

* * *

Chapter 7 - Conversations

"Oh god. What the hell were you thinking? Getting so comfortable in his arms like that, looking at him like that?" Carter had been muttering to herself constantly since he'd left the cave, berating herself for what had just happened, or almost happened, or what she wanted to happen.

"Stop that! And WHY haven't you even thought of Pete until just now?"

"Because while he's cute and makes you laugh and makes you feel special, he's not the General. When he's wet, he looks, well, like Pete... wet. He doesn't look so smolderingly hot that you can almost see the water steam off of him the way the General does."

"Stop thinking about him like that. You love Pete. You're marrying Pete. Cassie's coming home from college this weekend to shop for wedding dresses with you."

"Oh, god, wedding plans. Guess I have an excuse not to go now."

"You gave the General every opportunity to stop you from saying yes to Pete and he didn't."

"He couldn't."

"He may care about you more than he should, but apparently doesn't care enough to find a way to be with you."

The conversation was the same as it always was. She'd had it so many times before. It always ended with her realizing she was looking for something he obviously didn't want.

* * *

Meanwhile a short distance away, O'Neill was also having a private conversation with himself. "What the hell were you thinking? You KNOW whenever you get close to her you have problems thinking... talking... breathing... NO, you had to put your arms around her."

"Yeah, but how could I resist? Those big blue eyes, watching her shiver like that..."

"She's engaged. Cassie's coming home this weekend to help her with something with the wedding. It's getting close."

"She hasn't said 'I do' yet."

"You already had your chance and blew it. You know you would never jeopardize her happiness, even if it meant seeing her with someone else."

"Happy? With him? The guy's just... creepy."

"She's one of the smartest people in the world and one of the strongest people you've ever met, second only to Teal'c. Do you really think she would tolerate being with someone who didn't deserve her? Who didn't truly make her happy?"

And that was it. Carter had said 'yes' and she wasWAY smarter than him - Too smart to have done that if she wasn't in love with Pete. O'Neill always came up with the same conclusion to his argument. His utter faith in her intelligence blinding him to the fact that smart people can do dumb things sometimes.

* * *

"Sir?" His radio came to life, shaking him from his thoughts.

"Yeah, Carter?"

"Is everything OK? You've been gone longer than I would have expected."

"Yeah, just heading back now."

* * *

"Sorry about that Carter." He said as he came back into the cave, water streaming off of him. "You might not believe it to look at me, but it's a little difficult to find some dry firewood out there tonight."

Smirking at the site of him, "Really, sir? I don't understand it." Her grin faded quickly, "You should probably, um, change into some dry clothes. I'll just, uh, you know..." She stuttered as she made a twirling gesture with her hand and turned away from him to give him some semblance of privacy. They spent the rest of the night munching on MRE's and chatting about their present situation, trying to estimate how long it would take them to unbury the gate and get back home, all the while avoiding looking at each other.


	8. Peachy

A/N: As always, thanks for the reviews.

* * *

Chapter 8 - Peachy

The next morning the rain was gone and they quietly made their way back to where they thought the gate might be. There was still a slight tension ebbing at the corners of their minds from the night before, but over the past 8 years, they'd both become experts at hiding their feelings and pretending things hadn't happened. The rain over night had put the fires from the day before out, but now the crater was just a big pit of mud.

"Peachy."

O'Neill had to chuckle at his 2IC's assessment – she had said the exact thing he was about to just as he had opened his mouth to say it. "Well, it might make it a bit easier to move some of the dirt out of the way."

They found a couple of almost flat pieces of metal among some of the debris, which they started to use as small shovels. The mud was soft enough that they could scoop it away fairly easily with their improvised tools. After working for a few hours on the hillside they thought might hold their ticket home, O'Neill got a little too carried away flinging away one of his scoopfuls of mud and splattered some on Carter. It wasn't much, just about a handful of muck hit her in the shoulder and splattered a bit on her face, but she glared at him just the same.

"Oops. Sorry Carter." the sheepish response was immediate. He quickly turned back to the mud at his feet before she could see the grin he couldn't hold back.

After about 20 seconds of furiously digging at the mud, trying to avoid the face he was sure she was making at him, he was caught completely off guard when he felt a much larger scoop of mud splash across his back.

"Oops."

He slowly turned around. Big blue eyes looked at him innocently. "Sorry sir. The mud's a little slippery, I lost the grip on my shovel for a second there." He had to hand it to her – she managed to keep from smiling as she said it.

"It's ok, Carter, things like that happen sometimes." He turned away with a smirk that made her realize just what a mistake she had just made.

As soon as she turned back to her work – Splat! A huge clump of mud found it's way across her upper back. As she turned to protest, a smaller blob hit her in the stomach. Not expecting the double attack, she took a half-step backwards, slipped and fell, immersing her entire backside in the goop.

O'Neill was doubled over, howling with laughter. She just lay there in shock as he tried to talk around big gasping breaths. "Sorr... Car..." Another fit of laughter took control. "Dint mean..." He slapped his thigh and pointed at her. "Can't believe... fell..."

After a couple of minutes he was finally able to get control of his laughter and breathing. Seeing that she was still sitting in the muck, glaring at him, he knew his choices were either, A. Run like hell before she got up and killed him, or B. Try to make amends and start by helping her up. He looked at her again. She had her 'Don't fuck with me, I can take out a platoon of Jaffa by myself today' look she tended to get once a month – the look that he'd even seen Teal'c cringe at once or twice. He swallowed hard and felt his knees go weak, oh yeah, he was in trouble. Seeing as option A. would mean he would probably have to remain in hiding until they were rescued, he didn't think that was the way to go. He screwed up his courage, walked over and reached out his hand for her.

He braced himself in case she tried to pull him down into the mud with her, but that would have been cliché and deep down, he knew Carter was above that sort of thing. She graciously accepted his hand and carefully regained her footing. As soon as she was standing and he had let go of her hand, her other hand immediately came up and smeared a concealed blob of the muck over his face. He was so caught off guard that the slight push she gave as she did it caused him to slip. He instinctively reached out and grabbed her as he went down, bringing her with him. Yeah, stupid clichés – no matter how much he hated them, they always reared their ugly head. They both burst out laughing, getting rid of any trace of discomfort that might have still been hanging around since the previous night.

After calming down and catching their breath, they managed to get up and tried to wipe away the bigger clumps of mud, but it was no use, they were both covered from head to toe, the sticky muck seeping into places they really didn't want to think about. And with the sun high in the sky, they were going to just keep getting more uncomfortable as they dried. In their scouting trip yesterday, they had found a small lake just past the opposite side of the clearing that the crater was in. They headed over there to try to clean up. After scanning the area around the lake for any danger, O'Neill turned to Carter, "Hey, why don't you go first, I'll wait over behind those boulders and give you some privacy. Keep your radio nearby."

"Thank you, sir." She wasn't about to object, it was, after all, his fault they were in their present state.

Luckily, her clothes from yesterday had dried by the fire and she had them in her pack, so she was able to clean up and get more comfortable. After she was finished she went to retrieve the General to let him know he could get cleaned up.

As she rounded the boulder, she saw him looking in the sky over the tall hills to the west with his binoculars. "Anything interesting, sir?"

"Weird looking bird out there – take a look." He tossed her the binoculars. She spent some time looking at the creature. It was pretty far away and even with the magnification, it was hard to see it with the glare of the sun starting to get in the way.

He continued, "It's a big, honkin' thing and looks almost like it's got four legs."

She continued to look some more. "It does look like that's the case. Of course, we are on a different planet, so the evolutionary process here could make it possible. Just because we haven't seen a four-legged bird before doesn't mean they couldn't exist."

O'Neill got up and headed to the lake to go wash himself off. After a few minutes, Carter remembered she'd left her radio on a rock jutting out into the lake and started to head back to get it before he started his bath, but stopped in her tracks.

She stood there motionless, gaping at the site before her, relieved that he didn't realize she was watching him. He had already stripped off his muddy clothes and was washing them out in the water, completely naked at this point. With his left side to her, she could revel in his well toned profile, thoroughly and unabashedly enjoying the view. She thought to herself, 'Sweet!' Then she shook her head at that statement she had picked up from him and started yet another conversation with herself, 'You've been hanging around him far too long, for crying out loud.'

'No, ya think?'

'Doh!'

'Yeah, definitely too long.'


	9. No Progress

A/N: Thanks once again for the reviews – they really mean a lot to me. To kay13kl, sorry I didn't explain it better, I've edited that paragraph on that last chapter very slightly - oh yeah! - he was naked and Sam was thoroughly enjoying the view. Hazeydream – I liked that line too – I can so see Sam being able to make a grown Jaffa crumble with a glare when in the right mood.

* * *

Chapter 9 – No Progress 

Sergeant Harriman was having a bad day. Not as bad as other people were having, he realized, but still. He'd spent the last day redialing P4X-559 and running every diagnostic he could think of. Several times. It really wouldn't have been that bad, except for the large, imposing Jaffa standing behind him the whole time, watching every move he made.

Daniel walked into the control room and up to Teal'c. "Hey, Teal'c. Any progress?"

"None, DanielJackson."

"I haven't had much luck trying to contact the Asgard either. They're not responding to our communications."

"And we have had no contact with the Tokra in a long time." Teal'c observed.

"Right, we don't even know where the Tokra are to let them know. I know Jacob would do everything he could to find Sam."

* * *

Colonel Reynolds walked into the control room later that day, knowing that's where he would find half of SG-1. "Doctor Jackson, Teal'c? Any progress?" 

"No, Colonel, nothing." Daniel was bleary eyed from spending the night trying to contact their allies while also trying to think up a way to get to Jack and Sam.

"I spoke with General Hammond to apprise him of the situation. We'll try dialing them up next tomorrow and then one more time the following day."

"But... what about after tomorrow?" Daniel was really starting to get concerned over how the military might treat his friends' present situation.

"We will reevaluate the situation at that time."

"You mean, you'll call off the search at that time. Colonel, Jack and Sam have saved this planet numerous time, we can't just abandon them when they need us the most."

"I'm sorry Doctor Jackson, but you know as well as I do what probably happened to cause us not to be able to connect to that planet. From what you and Teal'c explained, the wormhole disengaged as soon as Colonel Carter probably started to work on diffusing the bomb. I know I've seen her pull some pretty amazing miracles out of the air many times, but the situation is just too disturbing not to consider the worst."

"So you're just going to give up?"

"Doctor Jackson, like I said, we will reevaluate the situation at that time. A lot can happen in 48 hours. Neither General Hammond nor I want to give up on them either. Like you said, every one on this planet owes their lives to them many times over."

* * *

Later, in the commissary, Daniel was pushing the uneaten food around his plate. 

Teal'c was sitting across from him. "DanielJackson. While ColonelReynolds is correct that the outlook is not good for our friends, we will find a way to bring them home."

"Teal'c. It's looking more and more like we'll need to get to that planet with a ship, do you know where we can find one?"

"I do not. P4X-559 is a great distance from any inhabited planet in this galaxy and it would take quite some time to get there by ship. Any ship we used would have to be available for a lengthy trip. For this reason, I do not believe the Tau'ri will allow us to use the Prometheus. We will have to find another. Let us see what the next two days bring and I will then contact Bra'tac to let him know of our needs."

* * *

Two days later, Daniel and Teal'c were in the control room with Colonel Reynolds watching Walter try to dial the planet again. 

"Chevron 7 still will not engage, sir." A gloomy Walter stated.

"Thank you Sergeant." Colonel Reynolds turned to Daniel and Teal'c. "I'm sorry. At this time, we will be declaring Colonel Carter and General O'Neill, missing in action, presumed dead."

"But..."

"Doctor Jackson, please let me finish. We will continue to try to contact our allies about this matter and will also periodically try to dial P4X-559 in the hopes that we will eventually get through. General Hammond has also put in a request for the Prometheus to visit that planet. We don't hold much hope on that happening any time soon, but we can at least try to get on the schedule. In the mean time, if either of you can think of anything else we can do, I'm all ears. I'm officially placing the two of you on two weeks down time so that you will have no other business to attend to, please use your time well. Thank you."

"Thank you Colonel." A now thoroughly depressed Daniel couldn't believe he might never see his friends again.


	10. Views Under the Stars

A/N: Thanks once again for the reviews – I never expected to get so many for this little story. Kay13kl – hey – you weren't being pesky – you actually helped by pointing out an important detail I left out and I thank you for it. Gateseeker2 – great questions, hopefully some of them will be answered soon, I'm still not sure what I'm going to be doing with our guys on Earth yet, but I'm working on it.

* * *

Chapter 10 – Views under the Stars 

Two days after the mud incident, Carter and O'Neill were sitting at the edge of the clearing in the dark, eating their dinner. They had spent the past couple of days digging for the stargate, without any luck so far. In fact, once the mud started to dry, it got more and more difficult to dig the dried ground.

Looking up, O'Neill commented, "That's the one thing I never get used to no matter how many planets we've been to – the change in the stars. And maybe it's just me, and a reflection on my gloomy mood at the moment, but I don't see too many up there."

"Well, sir, our own solar system, while in one of the outer spirals of the Milky Way, is only about 28,000 light years from the Galactic Center. On a clear night, under good conditions, you can see 2,500 stars with the naked eye. The planet we're on now, is much, much further out, towards the tip of the Centaurus arm of the galaxy. There's a molecular cloud obscuring our view of the inner part of the galaxy on the one side and then the edge of the galaxy on the other, so depending on what season we're in, it would be difficult to see too many stars without a telescope... What?"

O'Neill had started to chuckle towards the end of her explanation. "Your brain is always working overtime, isn't it? Most people would just make a vague comment in agreement or disagreement. Colonel-Doctor Carter has to give the complete scientific explanation. Not only that, but you know I only get about 10 percent of what you're saying at any time."

Giving him one of her dazzling smiles which would rival any of the brightest stars in his mind, she laughed. "Well, I _am_ a theoretical astrophysicist, and you _did_ mention something about stars, what did you expect? And besides, I know 10 percent isn't an accurate number, particularly where stars are concerned."

O'Neill just smiled a little, deciding not to act like she was wrong in her assessment of his knowledge like he normally would. "Carter..."

She waited for what seemed a couple of minutes for him to complete what he was going to say, but there was nothing. "Sir?"

He was staring at his boots in the dark trying to figure out how best to word what he was going to say. Then realized, she was way smarter than him and knew all too well their present situation. She didn't need him to explain anything, but it still needed to be discussed so they could start planning on how to survive there.

"We haven't made much progress in finding the gate yet. It looks like we may be stuck here for quite a while. We need to start working on the food situation. We don't have many MREs left, which means we should probably start exploring the local vegetation for edibles as well as start hunting and fishing."

"Yes sir."

"And while we're at it, can you stop calling me sir? It's going to start getting really annoying for both of us soon enough as it seems we're the only two people on this entire planet. By now, the Air Force has probably declared us missing, most likely presumed dead. Let's drop the ranks for now and work at things side by side, ok?"

"Yes ss... sssuure." she stuttered to avoid saying the familiar word. It was going to take a lot to overcome 8 years of habit, particularly when that habit was purposely done on overkill to try to reinforce in her own mind that he was her commanding officer and, therefore, unavailable. "On one condition, call me Sam, not Carter."

"OK. I'll try. And... while we're talking... I owe you an apology." The darkness hiding his features gave him the strength to get something that had been bothering him off his chest.

"Apology? For what ssssort of thing, Jjjack?" Yeah, definitely will take some getting used to.

"For so many things..." She looked at him confused by what he was trying to say. "It's Friday, Sam. I'm sorry you won't be home doing wedding stuff tomorrow with Cassie. I'm sorry you won't be seeing Pete this weekend. I'm sorry I got you stuck out here. I'm also sorry for a lot of things I've done, or not done, said, or not said, over the past 8 years." He continued to look at his boots as if they were the most fascinating things he had ever seen.

She sat there surprised by what he had just said. "Jack, it's not your fault we're stuck here. If anything, it's my fault. If I hadn't tried to diffuse..."

"Ah! Stop! I'm the commanding officer, it was my decision to stay. I could have ordered you back to Earth with Daniel and Teal'c."

"Jack. Don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault, it's some goa'uld's fault we're here right now, not yours."

"Still, it's screwing up your plans. Cassie will be disappointed, I know the two of you haven't seen much of each other since she started to go to college."

Sam thought about the young woman she loved as a daughter. "Yeah, well, I'm not so sure she'll be as disappointed as you think." Jack gave her a curious look, he knew how much Cassie loved Sam. He also knew the reason Cassie had decided to go to the University of Colorado in Denver rather than the Colorado Springs campus was because she was uncomfortable staying with Sam once she had started seeing Pete. He just didn't think Sam knew that. "She's not really very enthusiastic about this wedding stuff. I just don't think..."

He waited a minute for her to finish her sentence, which she didn't. "You don't think what?"

"It's nothing."

"No, really, is there a problem between you and Cass?"

"No, well... I don't think so, anyway, it's just that... well... I don't think that Cassie's too fond of Pete. Actually, I think it's mutual, Pete seems to be a bit jealous of her, of our relationship."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Carter, uh, Sam. I'm sure she's just concerned about the possibility of losing another parent. She might not see that she would actually be gaining a father. And I'm sure Pete's just got to get used to the idea of having a grown daughter."

What he said made some sense, she just wasn't sure if that was actually it. "Maybe."

"She loves you Sam, she just wants you to be happy. If Pete makes you happy, then I'm sure she's happy for you." The darkness still giving him the courage to express his own concerns. "He does make you happy, right?"

"What? Yes! Of course he does. He's a great guy, he loves me. He'd do anything for me."

"Ok, ok! I wouldn't think you'd agree to marry someone who didn't make you happy, who was undeserving of you or who you didn't love completely." At that she turned away and became fascinated with her own boots - something that did not go unnoticed. "Uh, Sam? I'm sorry if I'm stepping on your toes here, but... well... what you just described could really apply to Daniel and Teal'c, and, well, even me, I mean, we all love you and we'd all do anything for you and well, you know we're all great guys." He said, with his typical O'Neill smirk, which she didn't see as she was still staring at her boots, thankful the darkness was hiding the blush that started as soon as he said he loved her. "It's just that... while I've heard you sing his praises on a few occasions, I've never actually heard you say that you love him. You DO love him, right? And you're IN love with him?"

"What? Of course I love him, I'm marrying him, right?"

"Right." They sat in silence for a while, each immersed in their own views of the conversation they'd just had and the revelations they were each making about Sam's relationship with Pete. After a while, they decided to call it a night and go back to the cave to sleep.


	11. MIA

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews – they're great. OK, just a warning – this is a Pete chapter. I'm sorry, I don't like the guy either, but it had to be done.

* * *

Chapter 11 - MIA 

Daniel and Teal'c had been called into an early morning briefing, Saturday morning, to discuss options on what to do for Jack and Sam. As they walked into the briefing room, Daniel noted the odd grouping of people. There were the science guys, Dr. Felger and Dr. Lee. Sergeant Siler was there, as well as the members of SG-2 and Colonel Reynolds. They were also surprised to see General Hammond sitting at the head of the table. "General! It's great to see you again." Daniel immediately went over and shook the General's hand. He felt much better knowing Hammond was involved, since he cared as much about Jack and Sam as Daniel and Teal'c did.

Teal'c held his fist across his chest and bowed slightly to the man he greatly respected and merely said, "GeneralHammond."

"Doctor Jackson, Teal'c, it's good to see the two of you as well. I only wish it were under better circumstances."

"OK people," the General opened the meeting. "Until we bring back General O'Neill or find a replacement, I will be acting commander of this base. We're here to discuss what we've figured out so far relating to what happened to General O'Neill and Colonel Carter, as well as discuss ideas for how to bring them home, if possible."

The meeting seemed to last days in Daniel's mind as Siler and the science guys discussed gate feedback and the sort as they tried to determine if the bomb going off had shut down the gate or if they thought maybe Carter or O'Neill had done it or if it was something else. The military guys discussed options for getting the Prometheus out to the planet or finding another ship to use. Daniel discussed the pictures he had managed to take of the building before he was forced to leave. Unfortunately, although he had been over every frame of every image in minute detail, several times, the only thing that had indicated any goa'uld presence in the building had been the bomb itself. With so little evidence, they could not yet determine who had been behind the bomb. Teal'c discussed the possibility of borrowing a ship from the rebel jaffa.

In the end, it was decided to send SG-2 to Cimmeria to see if they would have better luck trying to contact the Asgard from the Hall of Might. Teal'c and Daniel would track down Bra'tac and try to find a ship they could use to fly to the planet, as well as find out if Bra'tac knew anything about who might be behind what had happened. All teams going off-world would be notified to be on the alert for any Tok'ra operatives, so that they could relay a message to Jacob Carter about his daughter.

As the meeting was coming to a close, Sergeant Harriman quietly knocked on the door and looked at General Hammond. "Sorry for interrupting sir. There's a Peter Shanahan on the phone for you. He says it's 'Urgent'.

Daniel looked at Teal'c. "Oops."

"Doctor Jackson, do you know who this Shanahan person is?" Hammond asked Daniel.

"Yyyeeeaah, he's Sam's fiancé. I guess maybe I should have mentioned something to him about Sam being stuck out of town longer than she had figured to be. Do you want me to talk to him?"

"No, that's quite all right, I'll talk to him. I didn't realize Colonel Carter had gotten engaged."

Hammond turned and went into Jack's office to take the call. Daniel and Teal'c hung around the briefing room, in case they could be of assistance.

"This is Major General Hammond, how can I help you?"

"Hi, yeah, are you the guy in charge there?"

"Yes, I am, and you are?"

"My name is Pete Shanahan, I'm calling about my fiancé, Colonel Samantha Carter. Her brother told me she had been declared missing in action, and I wanted to know what happened to her and why I wasn't notified."

"Well, son, I personally notified Colonel Carter's brother about her status, as he was listed in her file as her next of kin along with her father."

"What? Wait, aren't I listed there, too? What about Cassie? Is she listed, because she knew about it, too. I'm her fiancé, shouldn't I have been told?"

"I'm sorry, but you are not listed at this time."

"Oh, she probably hasn't had a chance to do that yet, you know how busy she gets. Can you tell me what happened? Is she stuck on another planet?"

"I'm sorry, the circumstances surrounding Colonel Carter's current situation are classified and I cannot discuss them with you." Hammond hated this part of the job, not being able to tell loved ones the truth about what had actually happened to people hurt or lost on off-world missions.

"Was she captured? Is she just stuck? Is she in some spaceship somewhere? Is her team with her or is she all alone out there?"

"Son, I'm sorry, I cannot discuss any information pertaining to Colonel Carter's present situation with you."

"Well, what are you doing to bring her back home? She's got wedding arrangements to make."

"Any information regarding any plans we have regarding Colonel Carter is also classified."

"Well, what exactly CAN you tell me?"

"The only public information that I can share with you at this time is that as of approximately 48 hours ago, the US Air Force listed Colonel Carter as Missing in Action, Presumed Dead. I'm sorry, son."

"But, wait, what about that O'Neill character. I must have left 20 messages for him to call me. He knows who I am, why didn't he at least tell me that? Are you the person I complain to about his lack of response?"

"Under normal circumstances, yes, I would be. However, General O'Neill is also Missing in Action."

"What? Wait. Is he with Sam? Who else is out there with them? They're not alone together are they? When do you think they'll be back? I need to know what you're doing to find her!"

Hammond was starting to lose patience. Sure, he felt pity for the guy, but at the same time, he just wouldn't take 'classified' as an answer. "I'm sorry, I am not at liberty to discuss that information with you."

"Well, who is? Who's your superior, I want to talk to him right now!"

"I'm sorry, but if you manage to talk to my superior, he will only tell you the same thing, the circumstances around Colonel Carter's status are classified."

"Who's your boss, I want his name and I want to be connected to him right now."

"Son, I report directly to the President of the United States. Feel free to contact him. I'm sure there's a phone number for the White House in the phone book. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do at the moment." And with that Hammond hung up the phone.


	12. Critters and Loops

A/N: Wow! I'm thinking some of you really don't like Pete. :-) I won't subject you to him again for a while. Thanks for the reviews!

* * *

Chapter 12 - Critters and Loops 

Jack was finding the critters on this planet difficult to hunt. He'd seen a lot of tracks, had even seen a flash of movement in the brush as he walked by once, but he had yet to see anything to aim a zat at. It was like they knew he was looking for them. He had managed to catch some fish in the lake that morning – their packs contained small, standard issue tackle kits which contained some fishing line, a few sinker weights, a bobber and a package of assorted size hooks. It didn't take long for him to catch a couple of decent sized fish that looked similar to bass for their breakfast. He was now using the inedible parts of those fish as bait to try to lure something out of the brush, hoping to get something that would have enough meat to smoke and last a few meals. He didn't like leaving Sam digging for the gate while he hunted and fished, but she said she preferred digging to hunting.

He was hiding behind a tree, overlooking what looked like an animal path, which is where he had left the smelly bait and was watching with his zat ready. He was only about 500 meters from where Sam was, on the other side of a small hill. He wasn't sure if he would have much luck luring anything out so close to where they were working for the gate, but he didn't want to travel too far away from Sam, in case there was a problem. After an hour, he saw some movement in the brush ahead of him. Barely breathing, he waited for the animal to make its appearance. When it finally came out of its hiding spot to investigate the offering, Jack aimed his weapon and... Swoosh! Some huge gray thing swooped out of the air, snatched his dinner and flew off.

"Jack?" Sam was yelling over the radio, "Are you OK?"

"Carter? Did you see what the hell that thing was?"

Sam came running over the hill, radio in hand, looking around for Jack. When she spotted him she ran right over. "Are you OK? Did it attack you?"

"Damn thing stole our dinner! Did you get a look at it?"

"Yeah, but..."

"But, what? Did I see what I thought I saw?"

"It looked like a dragon to me."

"Sam, there's no such thing as dragons. Right?"

"Well, that sure looked like one."

"You're talking about the fire-breathing creatures from medieval legends?"

"Yes, Jack."

"But they don't exist."

"Think about it. 10 years ago, you would have told anyone who asked that the sun god Ra never actually existed, until you met him. Just look at all the other so called myths that we've found alive on other planets. This creature could be the basis for our legends."

"Oh for crying out loud, we're talking about a creature that breaths fire, Sam."

"Jack, the bombadier beetle on Earth has the ability to defend itself by shooting out a stream of liquid at a temperature of over 200 degrees. I don't see how it would be that difficult to imagine a creature that evolved a mechanism to 'breath fire'." At his continued incredulous look at what she was saying, she continued. "Depending on the digestive system and diet, digestive gases can be combustible, it would just need a mechanism for igniting the flame, either with a natural catalyst in its system or some sort of sparking mechanism, maybe a sparking mineral it builds up on its teeth. Besides, we haven't actually seen it breath fire, so that part may be a myth."

"Bombadier beetle? Sam, is there any subject you DON'T know anything about?"

She flashed him one of her megawatt smiles. "No comment on that one."

* * *

Another night, another dinner conversation... 

"... So I'm riding my bike through the halls and up the ramp. Just before I hit the event horizon, I hear General Hammond in the control room yelling 'Colonel O'Neill, what the hell do you think you're doing?'" O'Neill is laughing hard as he's recounting the incident from one of his time loops. "Then I hit the wormhole and I tell you, what a wild ride! I felt like Miss Gulch riding her bicycle through the tornado. What a blast, until, of course, I got to the other side and hit the stairs pretty hard. Not one of my brightest ideas after all."

Sam was bent over laughing so hard her sides ached. "I can't believe you did that."

"Yeah, well, reliving the same day over and over again got to be a little monotonous."

"So... Um... What did you do to me while you were looping?" Her intense blue eyes almost looking right through him.

"You? Uh... Nothing." He couldn't believe his voice just cracked when he said the word 'nothing'.

"Jack?"

"Nothing, really." He tried smiling and looking innocent at her.

"You did stuff to Daniel, Hammond, Siler, Harriman, McKenzie and Janet. Multiple times. You even made a prank call to the President using Hammond's red phone. Are you really expecting me to believe that I was immune to your pranks? I mean, I know what kinds of things I might be tempted to do, if I were in that situation. The way you were smiling at me for two days afterward tells me it must have been something interesting... You didn't ride your bicycle through the women's locker room, did you?"

"No, Sam, that's something you might think of doing, not me." Jack was smirking at what kinds of things she might have thought of doing.

"What, me?"

"Yes, you. I saw you watching me the other day by the lake."

"What? Oh... Um... I didn't mean to... I was just... I left... I left my radio by the water and didn't realize you would have gotten undressed so quickly. It wasn't my intention to..." Her face instantly turned crimson remembering what she had done, not believing her luck that he'd actually known about it.

"Don't worry about it, Sam. Just remember what they say about paybacks." He gave her a wink.

After she regained her composure, she got the nerve up to ask again. "So what DID you do to me?"

"Sam, the whole point of what Teal'c and I were doing was that there would be no consequences. If I told you, there'd be consequences." As he was talking, he involuntarily looked at her mouth, twice.

"You kissed me, didn't you?"

"Wha... Uh... No... I wouldn't..." He couldn't look at her. How had she figured it out? Yeah, she was one of the smartest people in the world, but still.

"So, what? Did you pull me into a storage closet or something, or just come into my lab and kiss me? Come on, Jack, I know you did it, I won't hold it against you, I'm just curious about the details."

"Oh for crying out loud. If you MUST know. I went into the control room, dressed in my civvies, handed Hammond my resignation and kissed you right there in front of him."

"In front of Hammond? In the control room?"

"Yeah. Well, I figured, if I was gonna do it, I may as well do it right." By now he was smiling at her again. One more thing that had been bothering him for years – after the initial thrill had worn off, he had always felt guilty about kissing her without her knowledge.

She shook her head to clear the surprise she was feeling that he would have done something like that in front of Hammond. "Well, what happened? Did I, uh, you know... kiss you back?"

"Actually, yes, you did."

She stared at the ground for a few minutes, a flush of embarrassment rising on her cheeks as she thought about what had happened. Realization of what that kiss meant started to sink in. "You have GOT to be kidding me!"

"What? You're the one who kissed me back, you didn't have to." Jack didn't understand what she was so upset about.

"You mean, you knew, all this time?"

"Knew what?" He really had no idea what she was getting upset about. Nor what she thought he apparently 'knew'. She normally kept him pretty confused, but that was with technobabble, this was completely different.

"Knew how I felt! I kissed you back, in front of Hammond and everyone. How could you pretend to not know what my feelings for you were? All this time, you knew my feelings." By now she was mainly muttering to herself, pacing back and forth in the cave, Jack only heard a couple of words of what she was saying here and there. "... and you just let me go on with my life, with Pete, with the wedding... Here I kept trying to get the nerve up to talk to you... to tell you... and you knew... I guess you really don't have any feelings for me, do you. All that time I wasted, waiting for you. Even now, constantly thinking about you while stranded here, instead of Pete. What an idiot I've been." She turned and walked out of the cave.

Jack just stood there and watched her leave. He really didn't understand what she was upset about. Yeah, he knew how she had felt about him at one time, but she told him to leave it in the room, so he did. And obviously, her feelings had changed, or she wouldn't have gotten engaged to Pete, right? Wait, did she just say she had been waiting for him? And didn't she look really uncomfortable when he had asked her if she was in love with Pete? She never really gave him a satisfactory answer on that one.

* * *

He found her at the edge of the clearing looking over the crater that defined their current existence. A freakishly pink half-moon was high in the sky, casting an odd hue to everything, including Sam. He could see the tears trailing down her face. She had her arms around herself almost as if she were hugging herself. She didn't know he was there, he could quietly turn around and go back to the cave, or not. 'To hell with it', he thought, and walked up to her. He gently put his hands on her shoulders and slowly turned her to look at him. As her tear-filled eyes turned to look at him, he leaned in and kissed her. 


	13. Aftermath

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews. OK, so on with the story... sorry to do this, but this is Jack and Sam, they can't just ride into the sunset happily ever after, right?

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Chapter 13 - Aftermath 

Sam started to pull back at first, but then slowly put her arms around him as his hands moved down her arms and around her back. The kiss seemed to last an eternity, neither wanting it to end. All of the pent up passion, feelings and desires from the past several years seemed to flow through that kiss. When it ended, they simply stood there in each other's arms with their foreheads pressed together for a while, each lost in their own thoughts and feelings.

Jack pulled away first. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that."

Sam looked at him for a moment and nodded. "It's ok. I understand." She paused, thinking she really didn't know what reason he felt it was wrong and decided to call him on it. "Why not?"

He sighed loudly and rubbed his hand through his hair. He walked a few steps away and then turned back to her. "Sam..." She could tell how uncomfortable he was, just by looking at him. He was never one who was comfortable discussing his feelings, and their situation only made it that much harder. He started again, "Sam, I love you. I've been in love with you for a very long time now."

Sam's face instantly reddened and she was thankful the pink moon was probably hiding that from him. She hadn't been expecting such an open and blunt admission from him. Yes, they both knew or suspected there was something there for some time and had flirted with each other at times, but they had always skirted around the issue of their feelings before. That was probably why they were at this point right now.

"As your commanding officer and teammate I had to bury those feelings deeply so that no one would suspect and also, so that there wouldn't be any problems where I might make a bad decision, based on those feelings and wind up with someone else paying too great a price for it. I was also very selfish."

This surprised her, "Jack, you're one of the least selfish people I know."

"No. I have been selfish and that wound up costing me a lot in the end. You see, I loved you and I loved my job. I wanted to have my cake and eat it, too. I didn't want to give up the job... why, I don't really know at this point, but I didn't. I also wanted to spend as much time with you as possible, so I didn't want to see you transferred to a different SG team. If that had happened, we may have had some great times together, but they would have been few and far between, each of us being off-world at different times. Plus, I couldn't bear the thought of not being the one to watch your six. If anything had ever happened to you, while you were on a different team, I'd never have forgiven myself."

She nodded at this, she had had similar thoughts every time she had considered transferring off of SG-1 to try to pursue her feelings for Jack.

He continued, "So, I was content for a while, maybe not blissfully happy, but content. I had the job and could spend a lot of time with you, even if it wasn't quite doing what I would have liked to have been doing with you. But then Hammond got transferred, and I got promoted and put in charge, so that we were no longer on SG-1 together, you go off-world without me, I don't get to watch your six and no matter what team you might transfer to in the SGC, I would still be your CO. Then you said 'yes' to Pete and that was that."

"And that was that." She repeated without emotion. "So, you shouldn't have kissed me just now because I'm engaged and you and I could never be together because of Pete and because the job is still in the way." It was a statement of confirmation, rather than a question.

"Sam, I don't want to get between you and Pete. You said he makes you happy, if that's the case, then, I really am happy for you. Although, if I were truly honest, maybe not... does he really know you? I mean, most of your adult life has been defined by your job, I know the last 8 years have been. Has he ever seen the sparkle in your eye when you discuss the inner workings of a naquada reactor? Has he ever seen the way your face lights up when you read the test reports that show that the asgard hyperspace engine in the Prometheus is running at 110 percent of predicted efficiency? Has he ever had to figure out how to pull you away from a complex experiment on an Ancient doohickey?" He was smiling to himself at all the things that made her special – the way that every new technical marvel got her so excited that she glowed when working with them.

"I've thought about that a lot. It's true, Pete does know some things about what I do at the SGC, but he can never know the details. It's hard coming home after making a breakthrough on something and not being able to share it with him."

Jack cleared his throat and took hold of one of her hands. "Sam, as for the job, I don't care about keeping it any more. I'm tired of sending people I care about through that gate to their possible deaths. Yes, it's important work, and yes, all of our sacrifices will be worth it if we can get rid of the gould and the other bad guys, but, I don't like being behind the desk and telling other people to do the work, rather than do it myself. I also want to continue to be selfish and be with you rather than keep that job any more, if that's all that's standing in the way."

He looked into her amazingly blue eyes to see if she felt as much for him as he did for her. She smiled at him, love clearly showing in her eyes. "Jack, I can't ask you to give up your job for me, even if it's not your idea of a perfect one. We still need you at the SGC. I'd hate to think who they might find to replace you. I can retire, come back as a civilian contractor. I don't think anyone would object to that, I know more about how the gate works than anyone else, I doubt they'd want to let me go."

Now it was his turn to protest, "You'd no longer be on a front-line team. You'd miss the action. I can't ask you to give that up."

"Jack, that means nothing to me if I have to come home to an empty house or an empty relationship. I do love Pete, but... I just... I don't..." She sighed, not being able to admit the truth about her feelings for Pete yet, not even to herself. "I'm in love with you Jack and have been for a very long time."

Jack's heart skipped a beat at her statement. She loved him. But... "So, we still have the same problem. The job. Neither of us wants the other to give up their job for this to work. Sam, we'll figure this out, we've got some time before we dig out that gate. With your mind working on it, I'm sure we'll come up with something." He let go of her hand with a small frown on his face. "In the mean time, though, we should probably still stay just friends. I don't want the fact that we're currently stranded here together to cloud our judgment of our feelings. I know I love you and have for a long time, but, you still love Pete and I don't want to get back to Earth and have you conflicted over anything that may or may not have happened between us here. Take your time and think things through and figure out what you really want for your life. I'll stand behind you, no matter what."

Sam looked at the ground and nodded slightly. There were still some complications that needed to be ironed out. She had time while digging for the gate to think things through and find a way. But now there was hope – they each knew what their feelings were for each other, they just needed to work out the details.


	14. There Be Dragons Here

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews. They're all much appreciated.

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Chapter 14 – There Be Dragons Here 

After they had gotten their feelings for each other out in the open, Jack and Sam were more relaxed around each other, laughed more readily at simple things and caught each other staring at one another more often. Jack also thought, although he might be imagining it, but he'd swear he wasn't, that Sam seemed to walk just a little closer to him now, and sit a little closer when they had their meals. They decided to take up the routine of dealing with their food situation in the morning – Jack fishing in the lake and Sam foraging for berries and some edible roots similar to potatoes that they had found along the edges of the woods. Then once each of them had enough food collected for the day, they would head over to the crater and continue to dig.

It was the day after their kiss and Sam was digging while Jack had not yet returned from fishing. She heard some screeching above her and looked up. About 100 feet above the woods to her left was an interesting sight. There was what was obviously a young dragon, it's flight an ungraceful, butterfly-like pattern showing that it was apparently just learning to fly. Sam smiled at the view, how many people could say they saw a dragon learning to fly? Higher above and circling the young creature was a larger dragon, Sam supposed it must have been a parent, watching the progress.

Sam sat back and watched the spectacle for several minutes, enthralled by the grace of the parent. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of motion. Another dragon was flying quickly toward the little one. No sooner did Sam notice the intruder when she saw the parent swoop down at it. The intruder got close enough to the young dragon to startle it from its work and it started to fall as its parent slammed into the attacker. There was loud screeching and snarling as the two adults fought each other in the air above the woods. Sam lost sight of the youngster as she watched the fight get nasty. The adults would fly at each other, snap their teeth, slash at each other with clawed front feet and then fly away. The battle continued as they drifted away to the south. After a short while, Sam saw both adults plummet to the ground below them, far to her south and did not see either of them rise up again.

* * *

It was some time later when Jack came through the woods holding his catch of fish and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him. Sam was kneeling before a small dragon, holding out what appeared to be a power bar. It was sniffing at the offered food, but wouldn't take it, instead, it just kept snorting at her. Jack couldn't believe what he was seeing, Sam had a smile on her face and looked like she was just trying to make friends with a cute, fluffy puppy, not a mythical monster. OK, well, it was kind of cute, being as small as it was, but it would grow up and the one he had seen the other day was no where near cute and fluffy. 

He quietly walked up to Sam's side, hoping not to disturb the creature and possibly scare it into barbecuing Sam, if it even did breath fire. "Carter?"

She turned to face him and just raised one eyebrow at him.

"Sam? Whatcha doin?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Uh, it looks suspiciously like you're trying to feed a fire-breathing menace of the sky."

Sam chuckled at his description. "I'm just trying to make friends with this little guy. I think his mom just got killed or seriously injured."

"His mom?"

She quickly explained what had happened and started eying the fish he still held in his hands. "Oh no, Sam, these are ours."

She looked up at him with her big blue eyes in a practiced expression that always made him cave in to whatever her request was. "I'll trade you my last power bar for one of those."

"Oh, for crying out loud Sam! You can't keep him. As soon as we get the gate unburied, he'll be on his own again."

"Yes, but we'll have been able to observe a developing dragon in the mean time. No one on Earth has ever studied one before. Just think of what we might learn from it."

"I'm not going to win, am I?"

"No, Jack, you're not." She gave him her most dazzling smile, for which he was no match.

"Here, and keep the power bar for later." He handed her one of the fish and watched while she coaxed her new friend into taking it.


	15. Sorry Pete

A/N: Thanks once more for the reviews. I can't believe my little story's up to 15 chapters and not finished yet.

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Chapter 15 – Sorry Pete 

Daniel walked up to Sam's house and knocked on the door. It was Sunday morning and he knew Cassie was still in town. After Janet had died, she moved in with Sam until she went off to college in Denver. Most of her stuff was still at Sam's house and she stayed there whenever she was in Colorado Springs. After a several minutes, he heard movement on the other side of the door, which was then opened to reveal the beautiful, young woman, sleep still in her eyes.

"Daniel! Have you heard from Sam or Jack yet?"

"Hi Cass, no, not yet. Can I come in?"

She stepped back to allow him to enter the house. He closed the door behind him and followed her to the kitchen where she started to make coffee for the two of them.

"Do you have any news? Are you going after them? Is Teal'c getting a ship?"

Daniel was amazed at the rapid fire questions from the girl who had obviously just gotten out of bed. He had at least had 2 cups of coffee already that morning and he still couldn't keep up with her.

"We still haven't gotten through to any of our allies to help us get there. I came over to let you know that Teal'c and I are going with one of the teams to find Bra'tac and see if we can borrow a ship from anyone he knows. I don't know how long we'll be gone, the planet's pretty far away from most occupied worlds in the galaxy and will take a while to get to in a ship, once we find one. But – we _will_ find them Cassie. We'll bring them back."

"I know Daniel. I know you and Teal'c won't stop until you bring them home. I'm just... I miss them... both of them. And I haven't seen too much of Sam since things with Pete got serious. I shouldn't have been so distant. I should have talked to her more... came to visit more..."

Daniel's heart went out to the young woman. He needed to find his best friends for himself, but even more – he needed to bring them home for Cassie. He couldn't let her face losing the closest thing she had to parents in her life, yet again. He was always amazed at all that she had been through in her short life and yet was still such a well-adjusted person.

They talked over coffee for about an hour, discussing various Jackisms and good times they'd all had. They even discussed Janet at length and how much they both missed her.

At this point the front door flew open. "Sam! Sam are you home?" Pete came running down the hall glancing in the side rooms on his way to the kitchen, a hopeful expression on his face. "Is she home?"

"Pete, I'm sorry, no, Sam's still missing." Daniel quietly told the man facing him.

"Oh... I saw your car outside. I thought maybe she came back and you drove her home." His face fell as he realized his fiancé was still missing. "Daniel, please, tell me what's going on. I need to know what happened to her. No one will tell me anything."

"I'm sorry Pete, there's not much I can tell you."

"But even Cassie knows more than me. I'm Sam's fiancé and I have enough of a security clearance to know some of what you guys do. How is it you can tell a college student more than you can tell me?"

Daniel looked sheepishly at Cassie for a moment and she whispered to him, "He doesn't know."

Realization dawned on Daniel's face. Sam hadn't told Pete that Cassie was from a different planet and knew all about the SGC and the stargate from first hand experience.

"I don't know what?"

"Uh... oh..." Daniel stammered, the fewer people who knew Cassie's secret, the safer she was. "You don't know."

"Right, she just said that. What don't I know, Daniel?"

"Um... You don't know... why I'm here." Daniel Jackson, linguist who knew dozens of languages berated himself for stammering the way he was. He couldn't think of anything to say, so he figured the truth always worked, and he'd stay away from the classified bits. "I just came by to let Cassie know that I'll be going 'out of town' for a while to try to find Sam and bring her home."

"You are? Daniel, please, I'll do anything to get clearance, take me with you." Pete pleaded with Daniel. "I don't know where she is or what's happened, but I've got to do something to help her, even if I have to face 100 chicks with glowing eyes and laser beam rings to do it."

"Pete, I don't think that's possible, I'll be leaving as soon as I leave here and I don't think there'd be enough time for that." Daniel was kicking himself for saying anything to this man. Then the statement about the glowing eyes registered in his mind and a thought occurred to him. He could try to bribe Walter into dialing a goa'uld infested planet and send Pete there to 'look for Sam'. Nah, Hammond would never go for it and Sam probably wouldn't be happy with him when she got back, even if it was in her best interests.

"Anyway..." Daniel looked at his watch. "I've got to be going. Cass, General Hammond's in town watching over things while Jack's away. He said to call anytime if you need anything."

"I'll do that. Maybe I'll give him a call to see if he needs anything, I'm sure he's just as concerned as we are."

At this, Pete turned to Cassie, "You know this General Hammond guy?"

"Yeah, I've known him for years. He's like a grandfather to me. He's also a friend of Sam's dad and has known her since before she joined the Air Force. Don't worry Pete, he'll do everything he can to bring Sam back home to us."

Pete looked at Daniel. "Wait, Daniel, before you go here – this is my cell number. Please, call me the minute you have any news on Sam. I don't care what time of the day or night it is."

"OK, Pete, but I may be gone for a very long time before we know anything."

With that Daniel headed out the door as quickly as he could while Cassie went to her room to pack up and get back to school and avoid dealing with Pete any more than she needed to. She knew he'd probably start asking her for whatever information she had on what Daniel was doing.


	16. A Discovery

A/N: Wow! – over 100 reviews, thanks again for your interest in my story. Here's the next part...

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Chapter 16 – A Discovery 

A couple of days passed on the planet. Jack and Sam were slowly digging a large hole looking for the stargate. Rover spent his days hunting small rodents he spied in the brush. Sam had to laugh, whenever he found his prey, he would pounce on it looking more like her old cat Shrodinger playing with catnip toys than a dragon hunting for its food. Jack had decided to name him Rover since Sam refused to allow him to be named Santa's Little Helper and since, as Jack put it, he 'roved'.

He was growing quickly. Right now he was about the size of a Great Dane, and when he stretched his wings, they were at least 10 feet across. Sam constantly watched him when he was nearby, still amazed at the opportunity to see such a beautiful, mythical creature up close. She didn't know where he slept at night, always disappearing shortly before sundown, but during the day, he frequently visited her at the crater, or watched Jack as he fished. He seemed to watch them with an intelligence behind his shiny black eyes, an intelligence he exhibited when he hunted his food. It seemed to Sam that when he tried a tactic that didn't work, he never did the same thing a second time, while winning moves were always repeated. He was also flying much better than when Sam first saw him, he seemed to take delight in trying to soar above the trees for extended periods of time between his frequent snacks. She was hopeful that by the time she and Jack left, he'd be completely independent and would no longer need the extra fish she knew Jack was feeding him when she wasn't looking.

As Sam reflected on their new friend, she pushed her makeshift shovel into the dirt. She hit something solid and sighed. There were so many rocks and bricks in the dirt, it was tedious to deal with them. The first day she and Jack started digging, they kept getting their hopes up every time they hit something, thinking it might be the stargate, only to find yet another rock. She shifted her shovel over a few inches to scoop the rock out, and hit it again. She shifted further and hit the rock again. This was a big one, she would probably need Jack's help to get it out of the way. Sam started to scoop the dirt off of the rock to uncover it and make it easier for them to remove later. Then she saw it, one of the symbols that had become near and dear to her over the past 8 years. She knelt down and started frantically scooping away the dirt with her hands. Another symbol showed itself and then part of a chevron.

* * *

Jack was standing on a rock overhanging a deep pool at the edge of the lake. He was leaning over, looking into the water, trying to coax the fish nibbling on his bait to finally take it. "JACK! We've found it! Come quick!" Sam's sudden, loud radio transmission startled him enough to lose his footing and slip off of the rock, falling into the water. He surfaced quickly and started swimming to shore, cursing the loss of his best fishing rod. OK, it was just a glorified stick, with the fishing line attached to it, but still. It had a nice whippiness to it, which he needed to catch the ever elusive alien fish. 

He got to shore and tried to wipe as much of the water off of himself as he could, trying to think of something, anything, to tell Sam as the reason he was so wet. He wasn't about to admit he had fallen in. He quickly gathered up all of his stuff and started to run back to where Sam was digging the gate out.

When he got closer, he started to get concerned. She was sitting on the ground, arms around her legs and face buried in her knees. Jack looked behind her and saw the stargate, partially uncovered. "Sam?" She didn't respond. "Sam? What's wrong?"

Jack looked closer at Sam and saw a tear trailing down her cheek. "Carter? You ok?"

When she still didn't respond, he knelt down between her and the gate and put his hand on her back. He took a frustrated look back down at the gate. He didn't understand, there was the way home, it only needed to be uncovered the rest of the way. Wait... No... It couldn't be. The explosion didn't seem like it had been that bad, but... Close to where the exposed part of the gate disappeared under the dirt, he saw the problem, a crack he hadn't noticed when he first looked. The gate was broken apart, even Sam wouldn't be able to fix it.


	17. Stranded?

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews - you guys are great.

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Chapter 17 – Stranded? 

"Sam? Everything's going to be ok. We'll still get home, it'll just take a little longer than we were hoping, that's all." Jack continued to sit next to Sam, rubbing her back softly, trying to talk to her, but was getting no response. He was becoming very concerned.

"Sam, come on. You've been working pretty hard here for the last several days and now you're exhibiting signs of shock. Let's get back to the cave, I'll build a nice big fire, make you some lunch and we can figure out our next move." He stood up and held his hand out to her to help her stand.

After a couple of moments, one of Sam's hands unwrapped itself from her legs and slowly reached out to his. As she rose, she avoided looking at either the gate or Jack. They walked slowly back to the cave, Sam still holding tightly onto Jack's hand. Once back in the cave, Jack made Sam sit down on her sleeping bag and wrapped his around her. He then proceeded to build up a fire and make some lunch, watching her closely while trying not to look like he was watching her. He knew she wouldn't be eating much but wanted to make sure there was warm food available to her throughout the afternoon, so he put all of the fish he had caught that morning along with all of the potato things Sam had gathered into a pan with a lot of water and made a sort of soup out of it.

They stayed in the cave the whole afternoon. Jack talked about anything he could think of from Hockey, to Chicago's chances at the World Series that year to Cassie's latest subjects in school. Every once in a while he'd also manage to coax her into eating a bit more of the soup. She hadn't eaten much, but at least she ate some. He kept talking in the hopes of at least distracting Sam a little from thinking too much and dwelling on dark subjects. She, for the most part, kept silent and stared into the fire, nodding once in a while.

He tried talking about base gossip. Once he had become base commander and got Walter to loosen up around him when no one else was around, Jack found out that the Sergeant managed to hear about all of the gossip about everyone and everything. Jack avoided things he had heard about Sam, like the current betting pool about when her black widow curse would kick in on Pete. They had had to restart that one 3 times already, no one thinking he would live this long. He talked about Siler's crush on Janet and then Dr. Brightman as the reason he always found himself in the infirmary. There were rumors about Teal'c and one of the Lieutenants on level 24, Jack had tried to find out about that one by following Teal'c around for several days, but the big man was just too good at losing him. There were rumors about Daniel and one of the 4 armed, green wookie men from P67-5309. At this Sam looked up sharply at Jack with a look of confusion on her face, wookie men?. "Oh so you _are_ paying attention. I was afraid maybe you'd finally perfected the art of tuning me out completely." He smirked as he said it trying to cheer her up a little.

"It's a little hard to tune out someone who's been talking non-stop for 4 hours now, Jack."

"Well, you gave me no choice, I had nothing better to do... Wanna play chess?"

She raised an eyebrow at this. "You brought a chess set?"

"Well, no, but, we could get some rocks, and..." Her eyebrow went up further. "Checkers? All we'd need would be 2 different colors of pebbles..."

They tried checkers. Jack gathered a bunch of pebbles and drew a board in the dirt floor. He lost to Sam 4 times in a row before she'd finally convinced him she had had enough. She still wasn't talking much and was distant, despite being able to beat him so easily at the game, so he offered to draw a monopoly board in the dirt. He did get a small smile out of her for that one. She passed on it saying she just wanted to get some sleep.

Up until now, they had always set up their sleeping bags on opposite sides of the fire. Tonight as Jack spread out his bag, Sam came over and spread hers next to his. When he did his best Teal'c impression by raising his one eyebrow at her, she shrugged and said, "Do you mind? I just want to stay close tonight."

"No, not at all, go ahead." He got into his bag and watched her crawl into hers. She turned her back towards him, facing the fire, but was still very close. He watched her for a while, knowing she hadn't fallen asleep yet, knowing how her brain was working on overtime trying to figure out a way home, knowing that she was probably still blaming herself for their current status.

After a long time, he heard her sigh and softly whisper, "We're stuck here, aren't we?"

"No, Sam, you know we're not. They'll come get us."

"They'll think we're dead. They've probably decided that the bomb destroyed the gate and us with it. They won't spend the time or expense sending the Prometheus out here just to retrieve our remains."

"Sam, you know Teal'c and Daniel won't stop trying to get here until they either get here or see us return home."

"Their hands will be tied, the Air Force won't give them the resources to bring our remains home either."

"Teal'c left the SGC when Hathor had us, he would choose rescuing us over following SGC orders any day. Daniel would do the same. Besides, your Dad won't stop looking for you either. Me, yeah, he'd probably ignore, but you..."

"When was the last time we heard from the Tokra? Do you think my Dad even knows I'm missing? And even if he did, the Tokra have been less than hospitable to anything related to Earth since the troubles at the alpha site. There's only so much he would be able to do."

"OK. Thor! You know he'll come here looking for our help sooner or later. The little guy can't get enough of me."

He moved closer to her and put his arm around her. "The point is, Sam, we _will_ get out of here. It might take some time, but, _you_ are too important to too many people, and too many aliens, for them not to come looking for you. And, even if they do believe we're dead, you are too loved for them to leave your remains on another planet, far from home."

She seemed to find some comfort with his arm around her and relaxed a little at his words. They stayed silent for the rest of the night, eventually falling asleep.


	18. Moving On

A/N: Thanks once again for the reviews. I appreciate them. Stargate-fan: thanks for pointing out the typo, I've fixed it. Ilovesg1: I'm still trying to figure out where Rover fits in too. I like the thought of him being magical, I'll have to ponder that for a bit.

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Chapter 18 – Moving On 

Sam woke up early the next morning, feeling warmer than usual, with an unexpected weight across her waist. She then remembered falling asleep with Jack's arm around her and smiled at the fact that he was spooned up against her, his arm still around her. She lay there for a while enjoying the feeling, recalling drifting out of sleep a couple of times during the night, as she felt his hand brush her cheek or forehead. She would have liked to have stayed there longer, but she really needed to go outside. She carefully extricated herself from the still sleeping form next to her, surprised her movements hadn't awakened him. It then occurred to her, that with the mood she had been in the previous night, knowing Jack, he probably didn't sleep much, instead keeping an eye on her most of the night. Several stays in the infirmary flashed through Sam's mind as she remembered he would always be one of the constants in that type of situation. He would rarely leave her side unless ordered to do so by Janet or one of the other doctors.

As she looked down at his peaceful features, she resisted the urge to place a kiss on his cheek, knowing that with her luck, she would probably be caught. Then she thought better of it – so what if she was? She leaned over and lightly kissed his temple before standing. She headed to the entrance of their cave, missing the grin that crept up his face after she had turned her back. As she walked outside, a few small pebbles fell on her from the hillside above the entrance to the cave. Her soldier's instincts kicked in and she immediately looked up, grabbing her zat from its holster as she did so. "Oh, it's you."

She beamed up at Rover who was lying on a ledge above the cave entrance looking down at her, his eyes glittering in the pre-dawn light. "Is that where you've been sleeping?" As if in answer, the young dragon opened his mouth in a wide yawn and then turned to look into the distance.

Sam walked down the trail and took care of what she needed to. When she returned, Rover had left, so she went back into the cave to find Jack stoking the embers of the previous night's fire into a small blaze. "Good Morning, Jack."

"Hey, Sam, how are you feeling this morning?"

"I'm fine. How about yourself?"

"I'm good. You sure you're ok? Are you warm enough? Your temperature seemed a little low last night."

Sam smiled at his concern, now understanding his closeness last night. He'd been trying to keep her warm. "I really am fine, Jack. Still a bit depressed, sure, but, like you said, someone will find us. And besides, I don't think I could ask for better company while stuck here."

When Jack gave her a cat-who-ate-the-canary grin, she got a mischievous glint in her eye and said, "I'm speaking, of course, about Rover."

He gave her a mock look of hurt and laughed a little at her comment. "Good, I'm glad to hear that. Listen, I've been thinking. There were still some Ancient doohickeys in that building. Maybe something was shielded from the explosion enough to have avoided being destroyed, or maybe there's some in tact parts lying around the dirt out there. Maybe we should sift through some of that stuff and see if there's anything there you can do something with, maybe build a communications device or beacon or playstation or something?"

"Jack, I don't think..."

"Ah. Listen." He wanted to keep her mind occupied on something other than thoughts of being stranded with him, so he wanted to have her looking for something to work on. "Carter... Sam, I know you. If you were pushed, you'd be able to figure out how to build a naquada reactor out of a lump of naquada, some duct tape and a box of toothpicks. There might be something out there you can work with or study."

She chuckled at his thoughts of her apparent abilities. "Actually, I wanted to take a closer look at the gate. I don't understand how it could have been damaged like that. That explosion wasn't that bad. We've seen stargates withstand much worse than that."

Jack looked thoughtful for a minute. "Well, it could have been anything. This planet is so far away from other inhabited planets, yet had Ancients living on it. Maybe that means something. Maybe this gate was one of the oldest ones. Maybe it had been used a lot more than other gates and material fatigue over that time weakened it. Maybe it was rarely used until this place was discovered by those bad guys recently and the shock due to their use developed a stress fracture. Either of those weaknesses could have expanded into that crack during the explosion. Maybe one of the Ancient devices in that museum compounded some part of the explosion and had an enhanced effect on just the gate. But, yeah, if you could figure out what happened, that might help us know its limitations in the... What?"

Sam had been staring at him with her mouth slightly open. "Did you just use the terms 'material fatigue' and 'stress fracture' while discussing possible causes of a mechanical device failure?"

Jack just shrugged and gave her his patented O'Neill smirk and headed towards the entrance to the cave. "Maybe you're rubbing off on me. I'll be right back, just have to, you know." He pointed outside and left her standing there shaking her head.


	19. Moving Right Along

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews. GateSeeker2: I originally had a MacGyver statement last chapter, but wound up changing it because I wasn't sure about it.

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Chapter 19 – Moving Right Along

Sam spent that day working on digging the rest of the stargate out. She wanted to be able to see the whole gate and see if there was any damage other than the crack they had already found. They had decided that since they were no longer in a hurry to find the gate, Jack would spend his afternoons exploring the surrounding area to see if there were any signs of human inhabitants. Because of this, she had most of the day to herself. She grinned to herself as she thought about Jack suggesting they look through the debris for something she could build a playstation out of. The mention of the game device triggered her memory of placing a gameboy in her pack before she left Earth. It had stayed in the bottom of her pack the whole time, forgotten in the face of their current problems.

That night, while sitting next to each other at the fire after eating dinner, Sam turned to Jack during a lull in their conversation. "Oh, by the way, you were right."

"I was? What was I right about?"

"You said I might be able to find something in the debris field to make a communicator or playstation or something out of."

"You found something? Already? I thought you were studying the gate."

"Yeah, well, I took a break from that for a while, while you were fishing. Here. It's not perfect – not exactly a playstation, but you might appreciate it." She turned and reached into her pack for the gameboy and handed it to a very surprised Jack.

"Sweet! You found this? Where? Was it in what was left from the MALP?"

She gave him one of her megawatt smiles and admitted the truth. "Actually, no, I was just kidding on that. I had it in my pack the whole time and had forgotten about it. I'm sorry I didn't give it to you sooner."

"Wait a minute, I give you command of SG-1 and you start bringing a gameboy with you on missions?" He was chuckling at her as he said it.

Instantly feeling a touch of panic at the implication that she might not take her command that seriously, she answered quickly. "Actually, no, I brought that on this mission, especially for you. I didn't want you getting too bored while Daniel and I played with our rocks and doohickeys."

"Really?" Jack was stunned, he used to like it when she would bring a yo-yo along with her on some missions when he was still leading SG-1. With the passage of time and her own command, not to mention Pete, he hadn't expected her to do something like that for him again, let alone bring a gameboy. He thought about her kiss from that morning when she thought he'd been asleep and decided to take a chance. He leaned over and put his hand on her closest shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze and said, "Thank you," right before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "That means a lot to me."

Make that two stunned people now. Sam stared at the fire, face instantly turning crimson, hoping he was too preoccupied with his toy to notice. That was a very unusual show of affection from her CO. Yeah, they'd gotten closer over the past several days, but still. She didn't think he'd be the type to do something like that. "Uh, don't mention it. I'm, uh... I'm going to get some sleep. Have fun."

Jack couldn't help but notice that Sam hadn't moved her sleeping bag away from where she had put it the night before, right next to his.

* * *

The next day went pretty much the same, quiet breakfast and lunch together. Sam spent the day working on the gate while Jack fished and explored. That night, Jack noticed that Sam seemed to be distracted, spending most of the time staring into the fire as she ate. "Penny for them?" 

"Sorry?" Sam was startled out of her thoughts by his request.

"Your thoughts? Penny? For them? Well, I guess, since the caliber of your thoughts are usually so much higher than most people's, I'll offer you a dime." He waggled his eyebrows at her.

That got a small chuckle from her. "I don't know that they're worth a penny, let alone a dime."

"Well, ok, we'll discuss giving change back later. What's on your mind? You seem distracted."

"I'm sorry, I've just been thinking." She looked into the fire some more, considering what to say. She'd been thinking about Pete and Jack all day. Well, to be honest, she'd been thinking about them since that unbelievable kiss in the moonlight. Ok, ok, she'd been thinking about Jack for much, much longer than that, but the thoughts had been kicked into overdrive with his uncharacteristic kiss last night.

"Yes... I... noticed. Hence, my offering you money for your thoughts." He grinned at her.

"Yes, of course, I'm sorry." She smiled self-consciously and shook her head a little. She drew in a deep breath, bit her lower lip slightly and let the breath out slowly. It was now or never. "I've been thinking about Pete."

"Oh." was all he could manage at the moment. It felt like a hand was constricting his heart, while he was having an internal conversation. 'Peachy, stepped right into that one Jack. Now what do I say?' He thought back to some of the times he'd been stranded during a mission gone bad and how he'd relied on thoughts of loved ones during those times. He paused just a moment and continued. "I'm sorry, I know it must be pretty rough on you, you're probably missing him pretty badly by now."

"That's just it. I don't, well, I _do_, but not as much as I probably should. I mean, Pete's great and a lot of fun and I miss him, but I'm not missing him the way... the way I..." She squared her shoulders and took a deep breath, continuing to stare intently into the fire. "ThewayImissedyouwhenyouwerefrozeninAntarctica." She spit it out quickly before her brain could stop her mouth.

"Oh." Jack raised his eyebrows, unable to formulate a response to her admission. 'Come on Jack, say something. Nope. Got nothing.' So instead he opted for babbling incoherently "Uh. Wuh. Umm."

She finally turned toward him and looked at him with an intensity he'd rarely seen even Sam use. She reached out and caressed his cheek. "Jack. I'm not in love with Pete. I'm in love with you."

She leaned over and brushed her lips over his, then pressed further and gave him a slow, tender kiss. After a moment, she pulled away and smiled shyly at him. Then she became amused at the fact that she seemed to have left Jack catatonic. "Well, I've got a lot of work to do tomorrow, so I think I'll get some sleep." She crawled into her sleeping bag while Jack just continued to sit there shocked, wondering how he had become so lucky.


	20. Unexpected Guests

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews. Heavenly-vixen: LOL!

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Chapter 20 – Unexpected Guests 

It took several minutes for Jack to shake himself out of the shock of what Sam had just done. When she said she'd been thinking of Pete, he hadn't expected her to tell him she was in love with Jack, not Pete. By the time he went over to where the sleeping bags were, Sam was already fast asleep, so he followed suit.

The next morning, Sam awoke and slowly opened her eyes. She was lying on her side, facing Jack. He was on his side facing her, not two feet away, head on his arm, watching her. He grinned at her and said, "Good morning."

She smiled back. "Hi."

"You know, I could really get used to the view here."

Her smile grew larger, "I think I know what you mean. For a cave, it's got a pretty good view to wake up to."

After a slightly awkward silence, they got up and went about the things they had planned, trying to do as much as possible as quickly as possible. There were dark clouds to the south and the wind had started picking up overnight. They weren't sure how much work they'd be able to get done in the afternoon if it started raining.

* * *

Sam was still examining the gate. With no equipment, it was pretty pointless to even try to figure out what happened, but it gave her something to do and if anything obvious caught her eye, she would make a note of it and maybe study it further once a rescue team arrived. The wind was starting to gust along with occasional rumbles of thunder and she was hoping that Jack hadn't wondered too far in his travels today. She was kneeling over the gate looking at it when another big gust of wind blew by with a louder roar of thunder as she saw a shadow cross the ground. She was now also hoping that Rover would be careful, too. Her mind wandered to that magnificent creature she was lucky enough to befriend and so was caught completely off-guard when the staff weapon blast hit her. 

It hit her in the left shoulder, she immediately dropped down into the pit the stargate was in and grabbed her zat. Her heart racing she chanced a look at where the blast had come from. A goa'uld cargo ship had landed at the other end of the clearing and there were four jaffa milling about it, pointing their weapons at her. She glanced over to where she had left her P-90, radio and pack, they were 20 feet away and she'd be too exposed if she tried to run for them.

Well, a group of four jaffa wasn't that bad. She'd faced some pretty bad odds before. And they were in the open, while she had some cover. She started to creep her hand over the lip of the pit to fire at them and was met with a barrage of staff blasts so she couldn't aim a shot without getting hit. She tried again, only to be met with more fire. Yeah, it was a little easier when she wasn't the only target. She decided to try to just reach up and shoot blind, hopefully startling them enough so she could raise her head without getting shot. Her hand went up and a blast shot the zat from her hand, sending it flying behind her.

"Surrender or Die!"

'Well that's original.' Sam thought to herself as she tried to think of a way out of this, hoping Jack was nearby and heard the firefight. The end of a staff weapon peeked across the lip of the pit, so she raised her hands as well as she could with her shoulder injury and yelled out, "Yeah, OK." They didn't shoot her again, so she started to stand up.

There were two jaffa standing near her, weapons aimed at her. The other two were standing mid-way between her and the ship, observing the surrounding area. She was about to make a smart ass O'Neill-like comment to antagonize her captors, definitely hanging around him too long, when a gray flash swooped out of the air and barreled into the pair. They were knocked into the other side of the pit sprawled on top of each other and Rover was flying high again avoiding the weapons fire from the other two jaffa. Sam made a run for her P-90, not sure if she'd be able to shoot it straight with her shoulder and the burns she just realized she had on her right hand from when the zat was blasted from it. She grabbed the gun and her pack and ran behind a mound of dirt for cover.

Looking around to see where Rover had gone, she saw him flying down towards the pit where the two closest jaffa were. There was a bright flash of fire and her heart sank as she was afraid that they'd shot him. Then she realized it had actually come from him and went down into the pit, filling it with what momentarily looked like a small lake of fire until it dissipated. He soared upward again, dodging the weapons fire from the other jaffa. Sam managed to fire her gun at them. It hurt like hell, and she didn't hit them, but they at least stopped shooting at Rover in favor of shooting the back of the mound of dirt she was behind. She peeked around again to see Rover land on one of the remaining jaffa while the other started to run for the ship. She turned her head for a second while Rover dismembered his prey and then went after the next. A blast of fire caught the other jaffa, just as he was entering the ship. The door closed behind him, leaving the incensed animal to claw at the hardened metal surface.

Within a few minutes the ship slowly started to ascend. Sam watched as the ship flew slowly upwards and towards the south along a very wobbly path. The pilot must have been hurt pretty badly. Rover flew after the cargo ship screeching and diving at it. When he went around the front, he saw the jaffa through the window and sent a blast of fire at him. While it couldn't hurt him inside, it apparently startled the already injured occupant enough that the ship went into a nose dive. From where Sam was, she wasn't able to see much after the initial take off, but after a few minutes she heard what sounded like thunder in the distance and saw a ball of fire rising above the trees where the craft had crashed and exploded.

Sam relaxed back against the mound, trying to calm herself and even her breath, to help with the pain she was now overwhelmed by. As she lay there she saw Rover circle around above her a couple of times, seeming to look down at her, and then headed away from her. Several minutes later, as she gathered the strength to take a look at her wound and do something about it, she heard a very concerned sounding Jack on the radio. "Sam? Is everything ok?"


	21. Jaffa?

A/N: Thanks again for the great reviews. They're very much appreciated. :)

* * *

Chapter 21 – Jaffa? 

A few minutes earlier, Jack had been exploring north of the lake, oblivious to what was happening to Sam with the jaffa. He was about to turn around and head back to her after hearing an especially loud rumble of the thunder, when Rover flew down out of the sky and landed a few feet from him. "Hey buddy, you here for your lunch? Looks kind of like you've already had yours." He noticed blood on the front claws of the young dragon. With that, Rover snorted at him.

Jack frowned at the reaction. "It's ok, if you want more, I've got some extras for you."

Rover then crouched down, staring intently at Jack. He suddenly hopped backwards turned his body and walked a few feet away and stopped, while still staring at Jack the whole time. Jack just stood there watching the odd display, not knowing what to do. When he didn't react, Rover walked up to him again, crouched low, and growled at Jack. He once again, hopped backwards, and walked a few steps away while looking at Jack the whole time.

"O...Kaaay... Why do I feel like your name should be Lassie instead of Rover? Is Timmy stuck down a well again?" He started following Rover, who bounded forward a few more steps and looked back to make sure Jack was following.

Jack followed a few steps and felt a cold dread grip his heart when he realized what the problem might be. He started running in Rover's direction, who sped up his pace as well. Jack grabbed his radio. "Sam? Is everything ok?"

* * *

Sam looked over at her radio which was a few feet away. When she didn't immediately respond because that would involve getting up and moving, which she didn't feel up to at the moment, Jack continued. "Sam? Are you there? You haven't fallen down a well or gotten hurt or anything, have you?" 

Well that was an odd question, even for Jack. She crawled over to the radio and spoke into it. "Yeah, I think so. I think they're all dead, but I got hit in the shoulder and I'll need some help cleaning and dressing that."

"They? What? ... Sam, I'll be right there." And Jack ran after the dragon even faster.

After about 10 minutes, they emerged into the clearing at the opposite end from where Sam was. Rover immediately took off and flew towards her, as it was faster than running. He landed a few feet from her, cautiously sniffed at her wounded shoulder and then sat down staring at her intently. Jack cringed at the jaffa's mangled body as he passed it and ran up to Sam. "Are you all right?" He kneeled down next to her and looked at her shoulder. "Oh god, Sam, what happened?"

"Well, one of our questions has been answered. Rover can breath fire. I didn't think he would because the two adults I saw fighting hadn't."

Jack's mouth opened wide, then he closed and opened it again a couple of times as he started imitating a large mouth bass. "Fire? Wait." He grabbed his zat. "HE did this to you?" He started to turn toward the dragon.

Sam quickly reached for the weapon before Rover might think it was a threat. "No! Jack... He protected me. There were jaffa, you didn't hear or see anything?"

"Jaffa? I saw the one in the clearing." He made a face as he remembered seeing the body. "Well, what was left of him." He quickly scanned the area. "But, no, I was a couple of clicks north of here and didn't realize what was going on. I'm sorry. Why didn't you call for backup?"

"They caught me by surprise and my radio was too far away. He killed them all, I think we're safe."

"He did? Way to go Rover. Do you know which way they came from? Are you sure they were all killed?"

"They came by cargo ship. There were four of them, I'm pretty sure that's all there were and they've all been killed."

He looked around again. "How do you know they came by ship, where is it?"

One side of her mouth raised in a half smile. "Rover persuaded it to fall out of the sky."

Jack blinked a couple of times and looked at the dragon. "Oh." He had a new found respect for the creature. "OK. We should probably get you back to the cave to clean this up rather than stay here out in the open, just in case more show up. Can you walk?"

"Yeah, it's just my shoulder and hand that were hurt." She slowly stood up and started to sway a little. Jack gently placed his hand on her back to offer her support. "Um... maybe in a minute."


	22. Calling General Hammond

A/N: Thanks for reading my story. I'm glad you guys like Rover, I added him on a whim, since I love dragons, and he just barged right in and demanded extra story space. Well, how could I refuse someone with his charm?

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Chapter 22 – Calling General Hammond 

Jack didn't let Sam sit back down, instead he quickly picked her up and started to carry her to the cave. He walked as quickly as he could, while trying not to shake her too much. He could see by the look on her face she was in a lot of pain, but would never admit it. When they got to the cave, Jack carefully put her down on her sleeping bag, leaving her in a sitting position. He reached over and grabbed his sleeping bag and covered up her legs with it. "OK, first things first." He rummaged through his pack for his first aid kit. He got some pain killers out and handed them to her with his canteen.

Once she had swallowed the pills and drank a little water, Jack helped Sam take off her outer shirt leaving her tee shirt in place. Just taking off the one shirt caused Sam a lot more pain and Jack really didn't want to ask her to raise her arm so he could get her tee shirt off, even if he wasn't already extremely uncomfortable with the thought of taking her shirt off. Not that he hadn't fantasized about that many times in the past - just different circumstances. He looked at the shirt, a four inch diameter hole was burned through it showing the burned and bloody wound underneath. "Um... I'm gonna have to... uh..." He pointed to her shoulder.

"It's OK Jack, do whatever needs to be done." She started to reach for the hem of her shirt to pull it off.

"Wait, I've got an idea, might save you some pain." He found a pair of scissors in the first aid kit and very carefully lifted the burned edge of her shirt near her shoulder. He then cut from the hole to the collar and then from the hole down the sleeve, giving him unhampered access to her injury while still leaving most of the shirt covering the rest of her. "It doesn't look _too_ bad. Well, it's burned pretty badly, but it's not bleeding too much." He carefully cleaned the wound, applied antiseptic and burn cream and bandaged it up. Then he paid attention to her hand. Luckily the blast hadn't actually hit her hand, only the zat, but her hand was burned by the proximity of the energy bolt and had some blistering.

After Jack finished tending to her injuries, he reached into his pack for his spare shirt and helped her put her right arm in it. Then he draped the other side over her left shoulder and arm. That done, he sat down near her with his back against the wall. "Come here." He reached over and carefully lifted her into his lap so she was sitting with her right side towards him. He rearranged his sleeping bag around her and put his arms around her waist to hold her close.

She rested her head in the crook of his neck and relaxed. "Thank you. It feels a lot better now."

Jack looked over to the entrance to the cave, Rover was lying there alert and looking outside like a sentry. Jack had never seen the dragon enter the cave before this. "So I guess I'm gonna have to convince Rover to come back with us so I can assign him to SG-1 to cover your six, huh?"

She laughed a little at that. "You should have seen him, he was amazing." She told him everything that had happened.

"Did you recognize the jaffa?"

"No, I've never seen their tattoo design before. It's possible they were sent here by whoever left the bomb to make sure it had killed us. Or maybe see if there were any Ancient devices left. They were in a cargo ship, not an al'kesh, so I don't think they were expecting to find anyone to fight."

They sat in silence for a little while, each lost in thought. Jack hated this. He'd almost lost her. Again. He placed a soft kiss on the top of her head.

"You know, Jack. I've been thinking. I really don't think I'd mind never getting shot at by a jaffa again. Never again hearing the words 'surrender or die'." She said the last phrase in a mock deep jaffa voice.

He chuckled a little bit. "Are you sure? Isn't it thrilling? Wouldn't you miss the rush?"

"Hardly."

"So..." He paused. He'd love for her to never be in danger again, but also knew how much she loved playing with the advanced technology you could only find at the SGC and that the world needed her in the fight against the goa'uld. He didn't want to push his own concerns on her when she was vulnerable, so he wanted to make sure whatever choice she was thinking of making was completely her decision. "So what would you like to do to avoid that?"

She answered without hesitation. "Retire from the Air Force. Work in the labs. Be babysat like the other geeks whenever I go off-world again. _If_ I do again." She was smiling into his chest, enjoying the feeling of being so close, being held by him.

"Are you sure that's what you want?"

"Yes."

"No doubts? No second guessing yourself?"

"No."

"OK..." He thought for a moment. "Sam? If a radio signal is sent from this planet, it would reach Earth eventually, right? I mean, I know it would take years and the signal would be too faint for anyone to pick up, but, in theory, some small fraction of that signal would reach Earth at some point, right?"

Sam lifted her head and looked into Jack's eyes with a look of confusion on her face. "I don't understand. I mean, yeah, a very strong radio signal could be sent to Earth and some infinitesimally small part of it might reach the planet, eventually after thousands of years, but that would be pointless. Whatever part of it there was would be lost in the background noise of space long before it got there. They wouldn't be able to detect it and we'd be long dead. Why?"

"Doesn't matter." He reached for his radio. "This is Brigadier General Jack O'Neill of the US Air Force, Earth, with a message for Major General George Hammond, US Air Force, Earth. General, this transmission is in lieu of the normal paperwork as my fax machine is currently not able to connect to yours. Go figure. I am calling to let you know I've accepted Colonel Samantha Carter's retirement request. It is my recommendation that the Air Force work out arrangements to continue to employ Colonel Carter in a civilian capacity. It is my belief she would be an excellent candidate to lead the physics and engineering department of the SGC. Having said that, I also wish to inform you of my own retirement wishes. Time to pack it in and stop having snake-heads try to kill me. Thank you General, it's been an honor serving with you."

He unleashed his O'Neill smirk on the surprised looking woman in his lap and tightened his hold on her slightly. "I'm in love with you too, Samantha. And I don't ever want to be worried about losing you again." With that, he leaned in and kissed her. The kiss was slow and gentle at first and grew more passionate the longer it lasted. Sam shifted slightly for a better angle and winced a little as she moved her arm. Jack felt that and pulled back. He smiled at her, kissed her forehead and leaned back against the wall. Sam resumed her earlier position, leaning against him with her head nestled in the crook of his neck. After a little while, they were both asleep, each with a small smile of contentment on their faces.


	23. Of Dragons and Aliens

A/N: Thanks again for reading my story. Sorry it took so long to post this - I couldn't log into the site for a couple of days. I like the idea of someone picking up Jack's radio transmission and have been trying to think of a way to do it, but a ship would have to be >really close to pick something up from one of their hand radios, and I'm just not ready for them to be rescued just yet. Janissima - I had to laugh when I read your review, you're right of course, Rover is acting like a Teal'c substitute, but I just got this picture in my head of him flying up to Jack and saying in Teal'c's voice 'O'Neill, come quickly, ColonelCarter has been injured and requires your assistance.'

* * *

Chapter 23 – Of Dragons and Aliens 

Jack woke up early the next morning, momentarily disoriented before opening his eyes, wondering what goa'uld prison cell he was in, to have fallen asleep sitting on a rock floor with his back against a hard rock wall. Then he realized there was a warm weight across his lap and chest and remembered dozing off with the beautiful woman in his arms. He opened his eyes and looked down at the messy blond hair covering the head, seemingly attached to his neck. Her left hand was tangled in his tee shirt which she had apparently grabbed hold of at some point while she slept. She was snoring lightly.

He looked over to the cave opening, noting that Rover was still there. As if he sensed Jack watching him, the young dragon turned his head to look at the pair. He looked at Sam and then up to Jack. Then Jack could have sworn he blinked at him and nodded his head before standing and trotting away. Well, a nod is usually down then back up. He kinda just went down.

Jack sat there for a while, just holding Sam, waiting for her to wake up on her own. He knew she'd need extra sleep with her injuries and didn't want to disturb her. After about half an hour she woke up, noticed her hand and released his shirt and smoothed it back down. When she felt a soft kiss on the top of her head she looked up with a smile on her face. "Good Morning."

"Yes, it is." He smiled back at her. "Ready for some breakfast?"

"Famished."

He moved her back over to her sleeping bag. "Alright, you stay here for now, I'll take care of it." He stood up slowly and rubbed his back, groaning slightly. "Tonight let's make sure we're lying down when we sleep, ok?"

She grinned sheepishly at him. "Promise. But only if you still hold me while we sleep."

"Wouldn't have it any other way." He waggled his eyebrows at her and started preparing their breakfast. "Hey, Ms. Genius? I have a question for you."

She raised her eyebrow at the term and answered. "What about?"

"How much do you know about dragon myths?" They hadn't discussed the fact that Rover had come to get him and led him to Sam when she was hurt.

"Well, dragon myths have found their way into many vastly distant cultures on Earth and their traits vary on which culture's myths you look at. The western dragon, which is what Rover looks like, was supposed to be an evil, bloodthirsty animal. Asian dragons resembled more of a serpent like creature, made up of various parts of other animals, the body of a snake, scales of a fish, horns of a stag, etc. They were supposed to be intelligent and kind. Some breeds were supposed to have chameleon properties, some were shape changers. They could be different colors. Some could supposedly communicate telepathically with each other. The western ones valued treasure and villages sacrificed virgin maidens to them. Eating parts of them were supposed to give you certain powers."

Jack was nodding the whole time at her explanation, seeming to listen to her go on for a change, so she continued. "There was Quetzalcoatl, the winged serpent god in Mexican history. Then there's the Ouroboros, the symbol of eternity because he holds the end of his tail in his mouth. But you might also want to ask Thor about them the next time you see him."

Jack looked at her surprised. "Thor? You think our little gray alien friend knows about dragons?"

She chuckled a little. "Yeah. After we first went to Cimmeria and found out that the Asgard were impersonating friendly Norse gods, I read up on Norse mythology. Jormungand was the Midgard serpent, he was the son of Loki."

"Oi, not him." Jack remembered the 'god of mischief' only too well.

She flashed her megawatt smile at him and laughed. "Yeah, him. On the Day of the Last Battle, he fought Thor, since Thor was the only being who would be a worthy challenge to him."

Jack laughed. "Thor? The four foot tall, skinny, little, naked guy a challenge to a dragon? Well I guess if he had his doohickeys with him. He can be kind of intimidating at times."

"Yeah, well, Thor supposedly killed Jormungand with his hammer. But then the venomous breath of the dragon suffocated Thor and he died as well." She shrugged her shoulders slightly, instantly regretting the action when pain spread out from her injury.

"So. They're supposed to be really smart, possibly telepathic and fond of beautiful women? That explains some things." Jack was pondering the information with regards to their little friend's recent behavior. After eight years of stepping through the stargate and seeing some really weird stuff, he realized this really wasn't any different. They'd met smart creatures before, and that Eggar guy Nirrti futzed with was telepathic. It might explain how the dragon found him in the middle of the woods so far from the cave when Sam needed him.

"After I change your dressings, I'd like you to stay here and rest, ok? I'm going to go see if I can find that cargo ship and see if we can fly it out of here." It was an indication of how much her shoulder hurt that she didn't protest his decision.

After examining her wounds and changing her dressings, Jack gave Sam some antibiotics along with the painkillers. He then stepped out of the cave and stood for a second, deciding on if he should risk looking like an idiot in front of the woman he loved. It was for her own good and his peace of mind if it worked, so he went ahead and whistled loudly, yelling out "Rover!" After a minute, he turned to Sam and shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

When he turned to finally leave, he found the dragon bounding up the trail towards the cave. He turned his back on Sam, hoping she wouldn't notice him talk to the animal staring up at him. He bent over slightly and whispered. "I don't know if you understand me, but I have to go check something out. Keep an eye on Sam, ok?" He straightened up, thinking, 'I can't believe I just talked to an animal. I must be losing it.'

When the beast trotted over to the cave entrance, looked in at Sam and then lay down watching the surrounding area again, Jack wasn't surprised, and that fact surprised him.


	24. The one after 23

A/N: Thanks again for reading my story. Sorry it took so long to post this, been kinda busy at work. Ilovesg1 – yup, actually, when I see Rover I do see Thor, which is what brought about the head nod reference.

* * *

Chapter 24 – The one after 23 

Jack wandered around the woods, looking for the ship. Hoping against all odds that there would be something left to fly home. He finally found it after several hours by following his nose and the smell of smoke. His heart fell when he found the wreck. It had landed pretty hard and had burned up. There was soot all over it, and the front end was crumpled up where it had hit the ground. It almost looked comical, because it had basically planted itself nose first in the ground, with its back end sticking up in the air.

There were big gaping holes in the front of it, so he crawled through one to get inside and see if he could find anything worth salvaging. The inside was a mess. Everything was smashed apart and covered with soot. He managed to crawl to the communications console and tried to see if he could get anything working, but there was no power. He opened up several of the access panels to check on the crystals and saw they had been smashed in the crash.

He sat back and rubbed his hand over his face, disappointed at the loss. There wasn't even a usable zat left, all of the weapons, food, everything on board was damaged or destroyed in the fire. He climbed down and headed back to Sam.

* * *

Sam slept most of the day. When she woke up during the late afternoon, she found some food and a full canteen that Jack had left for her, and was thankful she didn't have to move much. She looked to the entrance to the cave and saw Rover turn to her as she looked at him. She chuckled softly remembering Jack talking to the animal that morning. She didn't hear what he had said, but wished she had had a camera to take a picture of the skeptical General talking to a 'mythical monster'. 

As she finished her lunch, she heard her radio click. Jack had left that within easy reach for her as well. "Jack?"

"Hey Sam, I hope I didn't wake you. I didn't want to say anything if you were sleeping."

"No, it's ok, I woke up a little while ago. Did you find the ship?"

"Yeah, it took a while, but I found it. It's a total loss. I'm sorry. I'm on my way back now, I should be there in an hour. I just figured I'd check up on you now that I'm in range again."

"Everything's fine, I'll see you soon."

"Rover still hanging around?"

"Yeah, he hasn't moved from the cave entrance."

"Ok, great, I'll see you soon."

* * *

They spent the evening in relative quiet, each lost in thought, trying to figure out what they should do next. At one point Sam nearly broke out laughing when she raised her view from the fire to look at Jack. He and Rover were looking at each other. Except, they weren't just looking at each other, they looked like a couple of kids having a staring contest. Neither one looked away and neither seemed to blink. 

"Jack?"

No response, still staring at the dragon.

"Jack?" A little louder this time.

He raised his hand, index finger pointing upwards. "Just a second. I'm trying something."

Sam frowned and shook her head with an incredulous smile on her face, but she continued to watch. After a few more minutes, she saw Jack nod once and then kind of nodded his head towards Sam while still watching the dragon. Rover then turned and looked at Sam.

She was surprised at Jack's behavior and looked at Rover for a moment to see if there was something about him that would cause Jack to have been concentrating on him so intently. He looked the same as ever. Gray, big black eyes which looked like they held incredible intelligence, almost like looking at Thor, well, the gray pointy face and big black eyes, not the horns, wings, claws, scales, fangs. Like Thor, but not like Thor. Well, now that she looked at him, it was a little disconcerting how earnestly he was staring at her, but, that was it. She was about to turn to Jack and ask what he had been doing when a thought of how they might be able to look for inhabitants of the planet occurred to her.

"Jack, I was thinking. Maybe if we climbed part way up that mountain to the west, we would be able to see if there are any towns anywhere nearby."

"YES!" he immediately burst out and then pointed to Rover. "Thank you! I'm not crazy." This of course made Sam wonder what he was talking about, because clearly, he was acting crazy.

"Jack? What's going on? Would you care to prove to me you're not crazy?"

He waved his finger at Rover. "It's him."

"He's the crazy one?"

"Yeah. No. No one's crazy. He's telepathic."

Sam's jaw nearly hit the ground. "What are you talking about? You're one of the most skeptical people I know about that kind of stuff and now you're saying Rover is telepathic?"

"Yeahsureyabetcha! Sam, I was a couple of clicks north of here in some pretty thick woods when he came and found me yesterday and practically told me you needed help. He stood guard over us last night until I woke up. When I asked him this morning to keep an eye on you he stood guard over you all day. And just now I, well, um... well, just trust me. He's telepathic." He started squirming a bit before revealing what he had just done. He was trying to prove to her he wasn't crazy after all. Plus he really didn't want anyone to know how far he had gone to figuring out if it was true. He had a reputation to keep.

Of course Sam would have none of that. "What happened just now?"

"Nothing."

"Jack. What were you doing?"

"OK. But it doesn't leave this cave." At her slight nod, he continued. "I asked him, in my head, if there were any other people around."

She sat back a little bit, surprised at the admission and then she laughed a little. "You asked a dragon, with your mind, if there were people around?" After looking at him for a moment to see that he was being serious, she asked, "What did he say?"

"He didn't SAY anything. You were sitting right there, did you hear him say anything? I just, well, got the thought in my head that if I climbed the tall mountain to the west I might see a town far off in the distance. Then I asked him to tell that to you."

Jack nearly started laughing -

Government issue cooking pot: About 10 bucks.  
Cost to run the stargate program for one year: Seven Billion, four hundred and seven million dollars.  
The look on Sam Carter's face when she realizes over dinner that her pet dragon just sent her a telepathic message: Priceless.


	25. Questions

A/N: Thanks again for reading my story. iamdragonrider: 'more evil than Senator Kinsey' – LOL! Is that even possible? That's a shame – I'd love to read your story if you were able to write it. For the record, I have yet to read any of the Pern books. I keep meaning to, but just haven't found the time yet. That said, I don't know if there are any similarities between Rover and McCaffrey's wonderful creations, if there are, they are coincidental. Unless of course Rover's been to visit her. He does disappear sometimes and it's hard to keep track of where he's gone.

* * *

Chapter 25 – Questions 

Once the initial shock had worn off, Sam still just stared at Jack, then she stared at Rover. Meanwhile, Jack was smirking and thoroughly enjoying himself. It wasn't often he got to see Samantha Carter, super-genius thrown so far off balance. He knew it wouldn't last though, so he held out his watch and looked at it while holding up his other hand, ticking off one finger at a time as if counting down. He said quietly, "Wait for it, hold it, in three... two... one..." He looked at her as she started to smile at the dragon, then said more loudly while pointing at her face, "And there it is – the gleam in her eye as she finds some new doohickey or scientific phenomenon to study."

She turned to him with a dazzling smile and a hint of a blush at his predicting her behavior so easily. "Jack, this is amazing. Do you realize what this means? We can actually communicate with a race of legendary beings that people on Earth think are only a myth. Wait till Daniel hears about this."

"Oh no you don't! If Daniel comes with the rescue ship, you are NOT telling him about the telepathic mythical creatures until well after we've left. I'm not spending any more time on this planet while he tries to become Dr. Dolittle and tells these dragons he's a peaceful explorer or goes into his Chaka mode and chants at the moon."

She laughed a little at his outburst. "Jack, you know we have to tell him while he's here. If we don't he'll sulk the whole way home and I know even you can't resist his sad puppy face when he's sulking." She then turned and regarded the dragon for a moment. "Rover, this town we might see if we go up the mountain, are the people there friendly, or are they like the men who attacked us?"

Rover stared at her for a second and blinked. Then he turned his head and yawned. Sam frowned as she waited to see if she'd get an answer. After a couple of minutes of watching the dragon become completely interested in a bug crawling in front of him, she tried again. "Rover, is it a big town? With a lot of people in it or just a small town?"

Rover poked at the bug with his snout. When it didn't move, he poked it again until it flew away. He watched it and then put his head down on the ground between his front legs and looked up at Sam.

"Jack, maybe he only understands you. I don't think I'm getting any answers."

"Do you think maybe your mind is too complex for him to understand?"

"No, it's not that, I don't know, but he doesn't seem to be interested in what I'm asking."

"I don't think that's it, Sam. I tried asking him if the people were friendly when he first flashed me the thought about going up the mountain. I didn't get any kind of response either. I just think he doesn't know the answer. He's been in this area with us pretty much since he learned to fly. If this town is far enough away, he may have only seen it from the sky and doesn't have an idea about the people in it. He might not know how to say 'I don't know' yet."

He walked over and knelt in front of the dragon. He drew a question mark in the dirt at Rover's feet. "Rover, if you don't know an answer, or want to ask a question, send us a picture of that, ok?" Rover looked at him and wagged his tail.

"Ok. So I'll ask him something I know he knows the answer to and see if he answers me." She thought for a few seconds. "Rover, do you know who Jack is?"

He looked up at her, with his head still on the ground as he wagged his tail once. An image appeared in her mind of Jack. He was near the lake holding a yo-yo. Well, the yo-yo part was actually dangling off the string which was tangled all over his hands as he was trying to free himself from it. She laughed as the vision changed to Jack looking around, as if checking to make sure no one was watching him. Satisfied that no one was, he lifted up a couple of big fish and held them out. She could just make out him saying something, not actually hearing anything, but hearing it in her head like a memory. 'This is just between us, ok buddy?' She turned towards Jack laughing. "I KNEW you were giving him fish when I wasn't looking."

Jack tried to feign innocence, holding up his hands. "What? I don't know what you're talking about. I'd never do that." Then he turned to Rover and winked. "I can't believe you snitched on me, you traitor."

He joined Sam in laughing at himself for a bit, realizing he'd have to be more careful around their little friend now.

Sam turned back to the creature she was now even more in awe of than she had been previously. "Rover, what's it like to fly?"

At this the dragon immediately raised his head and stared into her eyes. In her mind, Sam saw trees whisking by swiftly below her. She saw the glitter of the lake in the distance. She could almost sense the wind blowing in her face. She saw the view shift as she seemed to fly upwards towards the sky, then flipped over backwards and then into a nose dive which was pulled up just above the tree line. This went on for several minutes. Sam didn't want to give up the connection and Rover apparently was eager to share his love of flying. She felt a feeling of exhilaration, it was like what she herself felt when she flew a plane, except even more powerful as there was no machine aiding in the flight.


	26. Another Question

A/N: Thanks again for reading my story. Sorry about the delay, this chapter took a bit for me to figure out, I hope it's not too bad. Ilovesg1: I'd never seen those pocket dragons – they're so cute. Yeah, Rover could look like that, I especially like the one that's reading a book of what looks to me like Asgard symbols. I've purposely been vague in describing him because I figured every dragon lover has their own favorite dragon type pictured in their mind and just wanted everyone to picture him as they wanted. However, if anyone would like to see a picture of my Rover, you can see him at: www geocities com/becrux00 – just change the spaces to dots (.).

* * *

Chapter 26 – Another Question 

They didn't spend too much more time 'conversing' with Rover. It was quickly apparent that since he was still very young, he was unaware of many things in his world and still learning how to talk to them. He seemed to get fatigued quickly after sharing his flying experience with Sam, so they decided to call it a night and let everyone get some needed sleep.

When Sam had settled into her sleeping bag, Jack moved closer, put his arm around her waist, kissed her on the cheek and said, "Goodnight, Sam."

She smiled and looked down at his arm around her. He looked momentarily where she was looking, "Hey, you made me promise to hold you while you slept. I'm just doing what you asked." With that, she leaned over, put her hand on his cheek and started to kiss him.

The kissing grew more passionate as hands started to roam. Sam started out with her hands around Jack's neck, one moving up to brush her fingers through is hair. She'd been wanting to run her fingers through his hair for so long now. Jack had one hand behind Sam's neck and the other around her waist. He moved that hand up to cup her cheek, then moved it down her neck and across her shoulder. "Agh!"

"Oh god, Sam. I'm sorry." His had had brushed across her burned shoulder and at her cry, he sprang back from her as far as his sleeping bag would allow.

She swallowed hard and calmed her breathing before speaking. "It's ok, Jack. It wasn't your fault."

"I should have been more careful, I'm sorry."

"It's ok. Don't worry about it. I was... I was enjoying myself. But, I guess we should probably just get some sleep, huh?"

"Ok."

She turned to look at him. He was looking at her with concern and guilt etched in his face, still staying as far from her as possible. "Jack, please come back over here. I'd still like for you to hold me while we sleep."

He nodded his head and much more carefully, moved to her side and put his arm around her. Sam leaned into him and closed her eyes. Just before falling asleep, she whispered, "Goodnight, Jack. I love you."

"I love you, too, Sam. Sweet dreams." Jack closed his eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.

* * *

The next day they decided they would give Sam two more days to rest and let her shoulder recuperate before walking up the mountain to look for the town Rover said they might find. Wanting to gain her strength before her trip, Sam actually did stay in the cave for the most part and rested, or dozed in the afternoon sunlight just outside the cave. Jack spent the day gathering potatoes and berries to take with them. He also spent some time fishing and smoking his catch to bring that food as well. 

The following morning Jack rose early and made breakfast for them. When they had finished, he turned to Sam and said, "Hey, I want to show you something before we leave tomorrow. You up for a short walk? About a click from here?"

"Sure, I'd like to stretch my legs a bit today."

They walked through the woods at a leisurely pace towards the north end of the lake. It was a beautiful day, the sky was a crystal clear, azure color, no cloud to be seen anywhere. There was a slight breeze and the temperature was perfect for a walk. After walking along the edge of the lake a bit, they found a stream that emptied itself into the lake and started to follow its course through the bordering woods. After a short walk, they exited the trees into a clearing surrounding a small, clear pool. On the other side of the pool, about thirty feet from where they stood near the edge of the water was a 50 foot tall cliff face. Over this cliff, a magnificent waterfall fell into the pool. The sun was casting small rainbows through the mist rising from the cascading water. Although she had been on countless planets and been all over Earth, it was one of the most spectacular sites Sam had seen in all of her travels.

She couldn't take her eyes off of the waterfall. "Wow. Where's Daniel's camera when we need it."

"I thought you might like this." Jack was smiling at her. Then his expression became serious. "I was thinking... uh... well... When I found this place, it occurred to me... uh..." At this point his was looking at his feet, toeing a stone on the ground with his left boot.

Sam immediately turned to him wondering why he seemed so nervous, stammering so much. "Jack?"

"Well, it occurred to me, that, well... " He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and looked Sam in the eyes, her dazzling blue eyes that he always got lost in when she looked at him like that, which he promptly did. When her expression turned to one of concern, he mentally shook himself. "Right. Well, it occurred to me that... that even the richest man on Earth couldn't spend all of his money to find a more beautiful, more secluded spot, so removed from other people, where he could spend his honeymoon."


	27. And the Answer Is

A/N: Thanks once again for your interest in my story. Sorry the last chapter was a bit of a cliffhanger, but, yeah, I admit I'm evil. And with this chapter I still am. Of course if I were really truly evil, we'd now be looking back in on Daniel and Teal'c for a few chapters, maybe waste some time watching Thor battling some replicators, see the Nox making things invisible... :)

* * *

Chapter 27 – And the Answer Is... 

Sam's jaw dropped. "Wh... J... Oh my god."

Jack immediately raised his hands. "Wait! Before you say anything, let me just say everything I need to say."

Not being able to form a coherent verbal thought anyway, all Sam could do was just nod slightly.

"Look, you know I'm a kind of a make-a-decision-and-immediately-act-on-it kinda guy, right?'

Another slight nod.

"And if Plan A doesn't work, there's Plan B... Plan C... Plan Z... Well, I decided I want to live my life with you by my side, whether it's here, on Earth or on some spaceship somewhere in between. We've waited long enough and now we've finally found some happiness... well... at least I have... and I hope you have... well... if we weren't stranded on some backwater planet somewhere... but... that's beside the point." He shook his head and continued. "I don't want an answer right now... I know you probably want to think about it... I know it took you a couple of weeks to answer Pete."

"Jack... Pete..."

"Wait! Let me finish. Anyway, just... don't say anything... We're leaving tomorrow to search for that town and I figured this would be a great spot for a sort of wedding... if you were interested... and if you were interested in doing this before we left... let's just say, I'll be here at..." At this he looked at his watch and thought for a second. "I'll be right here at 1800 Earth time. If you're interested... just be here, too. If not, or if you need more time... if you want to wait until we get home... then... don't show up... I'll know without you having to say anything and I can pretend you just need more time to settle your life back home... or we can pretend this whole conversation never happened... or just delay its outcome for a bit... We've gotten pretty good at that sort of thing, so it shouldn't be a problem." He finally looked up at her with a hopeful expression.

By this point, Sam was looking at the ground. "Yeah, we've gotten pretty good at pretending things haven't happened between us." she whispered so he could barely hear it. Looking up, she spoke louder, "Jack? There's no one here to witness or perform a ceremony or anything, how could we do something like that?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I figure, legal marriages are based on local laws... Daniel was married to Sha're simply by the fact that it was local law for the father of the bride to give her away, literally... And... well... here in Samandjackland..."

She raised an eyebrow. "Samandjackland?"

He smirked at that, "Has a ring, doesn't it? Anyway, the local law could be whatever the local inhabitants, that would be you and me, make it. And we could say that marriage could consist of two people pledging vows to each other, witnessed by another sediment being."

"You mean sentient being?"

"Yeah, that, whether human or jaffa or telepathic dragon... Anyway... think about it." With that, Jack turned and quickly walked away to continue to gather food and prepare for their journey in the morning. He didn't look back as he reached the tree line. He wanted to, but was too afraid she might reject him on the spot.

Sam watched as he practically ran for the woods. She almost ran after him, but didn't know what she'd say or do if she caught up to him. Instead, she opted for collapsing to sit on the ground and think for a bit. This was a turn of events she hadn't expected.

* * *

Jack spent most of the day making preparations, preparations for the journey, preparations for what he hoped would happen later. He also spent most of the day hoping and praying to whatever gods were listening that he hadn't just completely screwed up his relationship with Sam before it had even had a chance. He left a note in the crater where the stargate had been for Daniel or anyone else that might come looking for them after they left. Then he went to the lake and washed up, shaved, made himself as presentable as someone who had just spent a couple of weeks on a planet with one change of clothes and no laundry services could get. 

By 1730, Jack was back at the waterfall waiting with Rover. The dragon was looking in the water of the pool, every once in a while pawing at the surface, trying to catch a fish he saw swimming around. He was getting good at sending a question mark to Jack whenever he wanted to ask a question and Jack was starting to understand a little better the questions asked. At least he hoped he was, otherwise he'd have one seriously confused dragon in no time.

The late afternoon sun cast a golden hue across the waterfall, giving it gold highlights among the silvery water and rainbows playing in the mist. He had timed it well, if only Sam decided to show. He looked at his watch for the millionth time.

1810.

That was it then. Sam was a practical person. She probably felt obligated to clear things up with Pete before taking this kind of sudden step. Jack understood, he just hoped and prayed again he hadn't screwed things up and turned to walk back to the cave. As he turned, he stopped short at the sight before him...


	28. No, Really, The Answer Is

A/N: Thanks again for reading my story. And thank you for everyone who still stuck with this after the last chapter. I'm sorry this chapter is a little short, but I'm going to be pretty busy for the next several days and I really wanted to post something to clear up that evil cliffhanger so it wasn't hanging over my head any longer.

* * *

Chapter 28 – No, Really, The Answer Is... 

Sam sat by the waterfall for a while after Jack had left, her mind spinning with his proposal. Sure, things had been going well. Sure they had finally let go and admitted to each other what they felt for each other. Sure they'd been enjoying getting closer over the past couple of weeks. But... married? She'd never expected that.

She slowly rose from the ground and decided to take a long walk through the woods to clear her head and think things through.

She wandered about for several hours, not quiet paying attention to where she was going, but also not allowing herself to get completely lost either. How would that look? Leader of the Earth's premier off-world team getting lost in the woods and not being able to get to her own wedding... if that's what she wound up deciding to do.

In the back of her mind she still had that little voice that kept saying it would never work. After 8 years of denying her feelings for Jack, the habit was hard to break. She did have things she needed to clear up at home. Jack was still her CO in the Air Force, the joke with the radio really didn't get them off that hook. Although, it could be argued that she did tell her CO she was resigning, even if the requisite paperwork never made it up the chain of command. She would also hate to be the type of person to come home to Pete and dump him after already marrying Jack. She had been looking forward to a more traditional wedding. Now that she was close to her dad again, she had been looking forward to him walking her down the aisle. She had wanted her friends to celebrate with her.

But, Jack made her realize something when he had mentioned they could say 'local law' was just that they needed to say vows in front of a witness. All that extra stuff really wasn't necessary. All that was necessary was that she and the man she loved vowed to love each other for the rest of their lives. And she truly loved Jack, there was no question in her mind about that, she didn't need to think about it for 2 weeks to know she wanted to marry him. Their friends would still celebrate with them when they got back. She could still have a traditional ceremony when they got back, if she still felt the need. Her dad would still... well... he might beat the crap out of Jack... bad example. But all the things she had thought she needed when planning with Pete, she really didn't need, did she?

She was lost in thought, still arguing the pros and cons with herself when she absently looked at her watch and saw she needed to head back quickly to meet Jack by 1800. It was then that she realized the decision was made – she had to get back to Jack. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him and she wanted to start immediately.

She stopped along the way at a small stream to get cleaned up a bit. She didn't have the beautiful dress and veil, and in fact she felt she looked pretty bad with bandages on her hand and shoulder and a burned out hole in her shirt, but it wouldn't do to show up with the grime of walking through the woods all day still on her face, so she tried to do her best. She saw some flowers and picked a bunch. She used her knife to trim some down to arrange in her hair, laughing at the sight of using this big military knife to cut flowers. The rest of the flowers she arranged in a sort of bouquet and saw she was really late and picked up her pace to the waterfall.

* * *

Jack waited until 1810 and decided that Sam wasn't showing up. He didn't blame her, it was kind of sudden for him to ask after they'd just spent several years denying their feelings for each other. He turned towards the woods to go back to the cave and stopped short. Sam had just run into the clearing and he felt like he couldn't even breathe. She was holding a small bouquet of flowers and had some tiny white and blue flowers arranged throughout her short golden hair. She had even woven a kind of a necklace of the small white and blue flowers, which hung loosely around her neck. There was a flush on her cheeks from the run, or from embarrassment at being late or from something else, it really didn't matter. All he knew was that she was glowing. He didn't see the bandages, the burned hole in her shirt, or the combat boots. All he saw was the most beautiful vision he had ever seen in his life. 


	29. The Big Day

A/N: Once again, thank you for reading this. And thank you also for all the kind words in your reviews, I'm really happy you seem to like this. TubaPrincess – I'm with you, I hate seeing partings between animals and people, so I'm still trying to figure out what to do with Rover so we're all happy with it. Without further delay, here's the next part...

* * *

Chapter 29 – The Big Day 

"I... I'm sorry. I hope... I hope I'm not too late, Jack." Sam stuttered out. She had seen the look of disappointment that flashed briefly on his face as he turned to leave, right before it was replaced with the look of, what was that? Surprise? Some happiness? A little desire thrown in? at her arrival.

He was just staring at her, not believing this was actually happening. After a few moments he realized she had asked him a question and was now looking at him acutely concerned because he hadn't responded. "What? ... Oh... Late? No, not at all. After all, what truly great wedding in history ever started out exactly on time? I mean, if we were back on Earth, Daniel would probably delay us by boring me to tears with the intricacies of eastern Babylonian marriage rituals of the northern tribes, or some such thing."

Jack was disarmed by how she looked, by her smile, by the fact that she was actually there and by the fact that they were actually going to do this. He'd never been so nervous before in his life, and as usual, he felt the need to cover his discomfort by trying to make light of things, so he continued. "And Teal'c, you know Teal'c, he'd probably raise an eyebrow and say something like...", and in his best Teal'c voice, Jack continued, "'O'Neill, it is customary on Chulack for the betrothed to do battle before the ritualistic ceremony to prove that they are worthy adversaries.' And, well Cassie, she'd probably demand that everything be just so. And Hammond, well, you know he'd probably be secretly wishing your Dad was on some mission somewhere so he could walk you down the aisle himself..."

Sam was laughing at his ramblings. Her smile turned a little wistful, "Janet would have cried if she could be there. She'd be so happy for us."

"Well, of all of our friends, I'm sure she's around here somewhere watching over you. You sure you're ok with this?"

"Yes, Jack, I'm sure. I really do want this."

Jack clapped his hands together. "OK. Let's get this show on the road." He reached his hand out to hers and walked her over to the water's edge. He whistled over to Rover. "Hey Rover, I need you to just stand right here and watch us for a bit, OK?"

"?"

"Because it's part of the ceremony."

"?"

"Because it's important."

"?"

"It's something two people do when they want to spend the rest of their lives together."

"?"

"No, we don't have to do this for all of us."

"?"

"Look, just... just sit there, please?"

Sam couldn't help her bemusement at the exchange between Jack and Rover. The poor thing, just how _could_ you explain a marriage to a young dragon?

Jack turned back to Sam with a sheepish look on his face. "Sorry."

"It's ok."

He grasped both of her hands in his and looked into her beautiful blue eyes, smiling sincerely at her. "Ok... um... I guess we can just say our vows, ask Rover if he objects and then kiss?"

"Um... Ok..." She took a deep breath and released it slowly. "Sounds easy enough."

"Ok... I... uh... I guess I'll go first? Unless you want to, of course... ladies first and all."

Sam hadn't gotten around to thinking about the 'vows' part. She hadn't yet reached that stage of planning with Pete, and hadn't been to anyone else's wedding in a while and was currently drawing a complete blank on what she should say. She realized she was probably giving him her panicked, deer-in-headlights stare, so she decided she would try to gracefully let him go first and see what he said. "Actually, Jack, doesn't the groom typically go first?" She was really hoping that was the case, or if not, that he wouldn't call her on it.

"Oh, ok, no problem." He looked down at his feet for a moment and he shuffled them side to side for a bit, then he looked back up into her eyes. "We don't have to do the standard vows thing, do we? Because, I honestly don't remember all of them, so is it ok if I just wing it?"

Instantly relieved at his admission, Sam quickly said, "Of course it's ok. We can just... we can just wing it and say what we'd like." She was still frantically searching her mind for what she could say. It always looked so great when other people wrote their own vows, but she was drawing a blank.

"Ok... I... Ok..." He smiled at her again and took a deep breath. "I, Jonathan O'Neill, take you, Samantha Carter, to be my wife, no longer my second, but my equal partner in life... I promise to cherish and respect you, to care for and protect you, to comfort and encourage you, and stay with you, for as long as we both shall live. With every beat of my heart, I will love you." He nodded his head to let her know he was finished.

Sam collected her thoughts for a moment, she could do this, just say what's in her heart... "I, Samantha Carter, take you, Jonathan O'Neill, to be my husband. I give you my hand and my heart as I pledge my love to you. My love for you is eternal and my commitment to you will never fail. I promise to love you unconditionally, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live." She relaxed a little and raised her eyebrows to him, as if to ask, 'what now?'

"Ok. I have something else here. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a cake on such short notice." He released one of her hands and reached into his pocket and pulled out two wire rings. "But I do have these. They're not much, apparently the local jeweler wasn't in, but at least we'll have something until we get back home and can get some nicer ones... um... ok... With this ring, I thee wed." and with that he slipped one of the rings on her finger, then gave her the other one.

Sam looked closer at the ring she was handed and realized Jack must have made them out of fishing hooks, cutting off the barbs and carefully bending them into rings. She put the ring on his finger. "With this ring, I thee wed."

Jack then turned to Rover about to say something and looked at him for a second. Then he turned back to Sam. "I think maybe we might be better off if we don't actually ask if there are any objections, because we might just raise more questions. What do you think?"

Sam nodded her head. "I think you're right. I mean, if there were any objections, I'm sure we would know about it."

"So then I guess we're at the best part?" He waggled his eyebrows at her and then leaned in for the kiss.

It started simple enough, just a chaste kiss on the lips, then it deepened. Their mouthes opened to each other as the kiss became more and more passionate. As if by an unspoken agreement, they started lowering themselves to their knees, then before long were lying in the grass, mouthes searching and hands roaming. Jack felt heat radiating on his right ear. "Argh!" He instantly lurched away from Sam and to his left. When he had turned his head to see what was so hot, he saw he was nose to snout with Rover who was curiously watching them, _way_ to close for Jack's liking.

He looked over to Sam who was holding her stomach from laughing so hard at his surprise. "Ok Rover, we're done now. You don't have to watch anymore."

When Rover continued to just sit there watching him, Jack made a shooing motion with his hands. "No really, go get yourself some dinner or something."

Rover nodded and trotted away before taking to the air. Sam stood up and held her hand out to Jack. "Maybe we should finish this back at the cave?" She waggled her eyebrows and Jack was immediately on his feet. He rushed up to her, picked her up and carried her back to the cave.


	30. Review

A/N: Ok. I'm so, so sorry about the horrible delay in updating this story. I've had a busy summer, trying to sell our house and move and such, then I was having problems with severe writer's block. We'll do a review of where everyone's at with this chapter and hopefully the next won't take so long to post. Thanks once again for reading this.

* * *

Chapter 30 - Review 

P2X-753

Or... Planet: I-Really-Love-Sam-But-I'm-Not-Sure-Even-She's-Worth-This as Daniel had decided to name it after slipping and falling in the sloppy bog for the tenth time after trying to swat away the local version of a gnat, which was the size of an average Earth humming bird. He got up again and tried to wipe away some of the layers of muck that had accumulated on him, the whole time glaring at the back of Teal'c's head. He couldn't understand it. The bugs weren't going anywhere near his large companion and yet were swarming around Daniel. They had been trudging through this bog for 3 hours now. OK, well, Teal'c wasn't trudging, he was striding along as usual, seeming to avoid even getting any slime on his boots, let alone slipping even in the least amount or stepping into the sinking soft spots that Daniel couldn't avoid.

They were here to meet with yet another rebel jaffa rumored to have an available ship. This was their sixth such meeting since they'd left Earth on their quest to rescue their friends. The ever exuberant and patient Dr. Jackson was starting to become irritated. None of the jaffa seemed to know facts about what might be available or where. Everything was rumor. And worse, they seemed to choose the worst planets to hide on. He had been through rain forests, blinding deserts, a howling blizzard and now the planet of muck and monster bugs.

"Perhaps you should refrain from using that scent when going off world, DanielJackson."

Daniel stared at Teal'c, confused. "What scent? All I can smell is the putrid stench of this swamp gunk!"

"The perfumed wash you use after shaving. The bugs of this planet seem to be as attracted to it as Nurse Halloway."

"You mean my aftershave?"

"Indeed."

* * *

The SGC 

General Hammond walked into the conference room to find Dr. Felger fiddling with the controls to the remote for the display screen. "You have a suggestion on how we can communicate with General O'Neill and Colonel Carter, Doctor?"

Felger spun around quickly at the sound of Hammond's voice and fumbled with the remote as he almost dropped it. "Uh.. Yes. Yes, sir! I have an idea I really think will work."

Hammond gave the scientist a stern look. Felger's ideas really should go through several other scientists for opinions before ever being considered, but he really wanted to find out if the two were still alive. "Tell me what you have in mind."

Felger's excitement grew as he explained his theory. "A mini-wormhole. We create a small wormhole to the planet with a modified version of the wormhole generator designed for the X-302 and send a radio transmitter through it. We should be able to talk to Colonel Carter and the General while the wormhole is still engaged!"

The General shook his head. "The wormhole generator for the X-302 was based on using naquadria which is too unstable for the job."

"Too unstable to create a wormhole for an entire ship to pass through, but we should be able to overcome the instabilities for a small wormhole."

"We also shouldn't generate a wormhole to a planet without a stargate. It's too risky."

"Right! But if we create the wormhole to the space just outside the planet's atmosphere, there should be no risk. That's why we'd be sending the radio transmitter through so that we can still get a signal to their hand-held radios."

Hammond considered the idea for several moments. "Work up the design and run it by Dr. Lee. If he agrees with you that it's feasible and _safe_, you have a go to work on the wormhole generator."

"Yes! Uh... I mean... Thank you, sir. I'll get right on it!"

* * *

Denver 

Pete Shanahan stared at the pencil in his hand with a dull expression on his face.

* * *

The Nox 

Were doing something entirely unrelated to this story and we'll ignore them as we are very young and would not understand just what it is they're doing.

* * *

P4X-559 

Jack awoke slowly. There was a warm weight draped across the left half of his body. As silky skin moved slightly across his own rough skin, he smiled to himself. The events of the past night were playing through his mind.

"?"

"Yeah, Rover, what's up?" He whispered quietly to the dragon, trying not to wake the beautiful woman with him.

A vivid picture of arms and legs and naked bodies moving together entered his mind.

After the shock of the scene in his mind wore off slightly he vehemently whispered, "You _weren't_ supposed to be watching us. That's something you don't need to know about until you're older. And DON'T EVER flash that to anyone else, ever again, OK?"

"What part aren't I supposed to flash to anyone else ever again?" A bemused Sam questioned with a slight grin and a raised eyebrow.

Jack reddened slightly and then smiled at her. "Any of your parts. Not to lovesick aliens, alien entities taking over your body, or anyone else. Did you sleep all right Lieutenant Colonel Doctor Mrs. Samantha Carter O'Neill?"

Sam buried her face in his neck. "Wow. That's a mouthful. And think about the poor people standing behind me at the checkout lines while I try to sign my name for the credit card. It'll take forever." She looked up at him. "I haven't slept so well in I can't remember how long. How about you Brigadier General Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill Carter?"

"OK. We'll stop with the name stuff. Jack and Sam will do just fine. Oh, and of course Rover. I slept pretty well also. Are you ready to tackle that mountain today, or do you want to stick around here for a while?" He waggled his eyebrows at her and pulled her closer.

At the sound of Rover wagging his tail across the floor, Jack quickly changed his mind. "We should probably set out before it gets too late. We should be able to climb pretty high up by late afternoon and get a good look at our surroundings."

Sam agreed and they started to prepare to leave the cave they had called home for the past weeks.

"?"

"Not now, Rover."


	31. Skills

A/N: Thanks again for your kind words and for sticking with me after my lengthy break. Ilovesg1: I think my muse and Rover had decided to take a summer vacation. I can't really blame them, there's a nice lake nearby that Rover would probably love to explore.

* * *

Chapter 31 – Skills 

It was a beautiful morning for a hike. Jack and Sam kept a brisk pace while walking up the gentle slopes of the highest mountain within sight. Ok, by Colorado standards, this was really just a hill, but it was a tall hill and should afford them a good view of the surrounding countryside from the top. They walked mainly in companionable silence, occasionally pointing out interesting rock formations or watching Rover soaring overhead. They were just enjoying being together without the need to keep up a constant conversation.

Shortly after starting out after their lunch break, they came upon a rock face crossing their path, which extended out to their sides for as far as they could see.

"Peachy." Jack muttered as he looked at the craggy face reaching 15 feet into the air in front of him. As Rover landed next to him, he said to Sam, "Let's look for the easiest place to climb this. I don't want to strain your shoulder too much."

She nodded absently and started walking along the barrier examining possible routes to climb. Rover stared at Jack and then at the rock face and back again. He gave a short snort to get Jack's attention, which also made Sam turn her head. When Jack turned towards him, Rover again pointedly looked at the rock face and then Jack and then back again. He crouched low, took a leap upwards and with a beat of his wings was at the top looking down at them and snorted again, as if to say, 'Just jump up here.'

When Jack did nothing but stare at him, he leaped down, snorted at Jack, repeated the feat and was again looking down at them waiting for them to join him. Jack looked at Sam for a moment then turned back to Rover. "Sorry kiddo, we're not made like you. We can't jump and fly like that."

Rover leaped down to Jack's side again and looked at his legs, which were still longer than his own. Then he crouched down as if about to jump and snorted at Jack. Jack chuckled a little. "Are you trying to show me how to jump? Look, we don't have the same ability you do." And, to prove his point, Jack crouched down and jumped, a little half-heartedly as he didn't want to aggravate his knees. He cleared about a half a foot off the ground and Rover just stared at him for a moment. Then one side of his upper lip started to curl as if he were about to snarl. He gave a short cough, and a snort and continued to snort and cough. Jack started to step towards the dragon with his hand reaching out, concerned that he was choking on something when he realized Rover was laughing. At him. He, Jack O'Neill, was being laughed at by an adolescent dragon.

Jack immediately turned to Sam to confirm his suspicions. She put her hand to her mouth and turned away as soon as she saw him look at her, but her bobbing shoulders were enough proof for him.

"Yeah, well, laugh it up. Ha ha ha, you've got me there. But I can do things you can't, you know."

Rover had stopped laughing, but his tail was still wagging furiously and he was watching Jack as he looked at his hands and around the area looking for something he could do that the dragon couldn't.

"I know! Bet you can't juggle!"

Sam turned around at this point and watched the interaction as Rover continued to watch Jack. Jack reached down and picked up three fist sized rocks. "Watch this!" He started to juggle the rocks. After a couple of minutes, he started to do a couple of tricks by throwing one rock higher in the air and such. Rover was entranced. His head was bobbing up and down as he tried to watch all three objects along with Jack's hands at the same time.

When Jack stopped, Rover snorted and wagged his tale.

"?"

"That's it for playtime for now, kid. We'll do that again later, ok?"

"?"

"I'll show you how later. Right now we've got to find a way up this wall. Ok?"

Rover wagged his tale again and sat down as Jack and Sam went back to the rock face to look for an easy way up. When they had decided on a spot and Jack started to climb it first, Sam curiously glanced over to see Rover picking up one of Jack's rocks in his mouth and throwing it up into the air. When it started to fall, he'd reach his snout out and try to knock it back upwards, which usually sent it off at an odd angle and he'd have to go bounding after it. He continued to play with his rock in that manner the whole time Jack and Sam were climbing up to their destination.

Once they were at the top, and had taken a water break, they turned to continue their hike. "Come on, Rover, we're moving on now!" Jack called out and started walking.

Sam watched as Rover picked up one of the rocks in his mouth and looked at the other two. He managed to get a second one in his mouth as well, but the third just wouldn't fit. He carefully grasped it with his front paw. Sam had noticed him grab things with his 'hands' before. They were surprisingly flexible for something he walked on and he could grasp sticks and things fairly easily, utilizing his curved claws and digits. Rock in hand, he leaped up and landed next to Sam. There he spit out the rocks at her feet and dropped the one in his paw and looked up at her, looked at her pack and looked back into her eyes. She understood his meaning and reached down to pick up the rocks. He picked up one of them in his mouth and watched as she put the other two in a side pocket of her pack.

Satisfied, he trotted off and took to flight to follow them in the air as Sam jogged to catch up to Jack.


	32. Of Rocks and Swamp Muck

A/N: Hi, I'm back and hopefully will finally finish this little story at some point – a few more chapters to go still. Sorry about the delay, life has an annoying habit of getting in it's own way sometimes.

A few notes – thanks for the reviews, I appreciate them.

LanaJoy – LOL – I think I'll stay away from unicorns.

As far as Jack or Sam riding Rover – he's still a bit small for that at the moment. I'm not sure if and when that might happen.

This chapter is dedicated to Darth Tater, who reminded me to work on it. :)

And now without further delay...

* * *

Chapter 32 – Of Rocks and Swamp Muck 

Jack and Sam continued to walk through the woods climbing the hillside to get to the top, where, hopefully, they would see some sort of sign of other inhabitants on the planet. The afternoon was getting late and the golden sunlight was slanting through the trees, with dappled shadows playing across Sam's face every time Jack looked back at her to confirm she was still following. She was beautiful - he still couldn't believe she actually loved him.

He heard a crash of branches above his head and assumed it to just be a bird they had startled from it's perch. No such luck.

"Ow! What the..." Mistaking the fallen rock for an attack from the trees, Jack immediately dropped and rolled, readying his P-90. Sam saw his actions and also dropped, readying her weapon. When a large gray form next dropped through the trees, they both trained their sites on the gray scales that looked similar to jaffa armor. Then they relaxed their hold on their weapons as Rover landed next to the rock and picked it up.

"Rover! Did you have to drop that on my head?"

The dragon crouched in a stance that looked appropriately sheepish, not because he understood what he'd done wrong, but because Jack yelled at him. He knew he wasn't supposed to let the rock fall, but it wasn't really his fault he hadn't gotten the hang of the thing yet. He wagged his tail once and leaped back into the air as Jack rubbed the sore spot on the top of his head.

Sam cautiously got a little closer. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, just got beaned pretty good." He swept his arms around the area. "You'd think with all this space, the odds of him hitting me would be pretty slim. Do you think he aimed for me on purpose?"

Sam couldn't help smirking. "Jack. Do you really think he would have thrown a rock at you? It's your own fault, you know. You had to juggle for him, didn't you? He's been up there all afternoon, throwing that rock in the air and trying to bounce it off his nose while flying. I'm surprised you haven't been hit more often."

He opened his mouth to respond, but instead just shook his head absently and started walking again.

* * *

About an hour later they came to a very small clearing that was close to the top of the mountain, but would provide some cover from wind. They decided to camp there for the night. Sam got the campfire ready while Jack scouted to the top of the mountain to see if he could see anything in the waning light. 

It took Jack about 20 minutes to reach a point with a panoramic view in all directions. Before he had left, he made sure Rover would stay with Sam, so he felt reasonably comfortable leaving her for a couple of hours. He carefully surveyed the surrounding countryside. He was looking for several things. Smoke might indicate someone's fire in a house or factory. The last rays of the day's sunlight might reflect off of a metallic or glass structure. A nice city skyline would be great at this point. Something in the air might indicate someone who had advanced to at least air flight, if not space flight. Or it might indicate goa'uld ships. Another thing he was concerned about was the possibility of seeing another dragon. Somehow he had the feeling they might not all be as friendly as Rover. He also didn't want Rover accidentally flying into a fully grown dragon's territory, he didn't want anything to happen to the little guy.

He had his binoculars out and was carefully scanning the land and air to the west. It was starting to get dark, but that was ok. After traveling all over the galaxy, he had learned more than one 'universal' trait among people. One of which was, if you wanted to see how many people were on a planet and how advanced their civilization was, you looked at how much light they gave off during the night. When in orbit around a planet, you could rarely see man made things on the day side, while the night side usually revealed decent sized cities just by the light they gave off. Here, he'd accept finding a single light or fire to guide him in his search. So far he saw nothing and slowly turned. Taking his time to view everything he could see for any sign of light.

When the air started to chill and he had done two complete circles, not seeing any lights or anything else of note, Jack decided to head back to camp for the night. In the morning, he would return with Sam and see what the daylight might display. As he quietly entered the clearing, he saw Sam with her back to him, crouching in front of Rover, speaking to him and pointing to his snout. "So, you see, your best option is to catch it right here at the top where it's relatively flat and won't hit at an angle."

As Jack walked up to them, he saw a drawing in the dirt of a curve and lines bouncing off of it at different angles, reminding him of an old science class he had where he'd learned about the reflection of light on curved surfaces.

"Sa-am? Whatcha doin'?"

She smiled as she turned to him. "I was just talking to Rover, Jack."

"You weren't teaching him physics were you?"

A hint of blush colored her cheeks as she looked down at her drawing he must have seen. "Well, I thought it would help. He's still trying to figure out how to bounce that rock off his nose to juggle with it."

He looked over at Rover who was playing with his rock again. He was doing a slightly better job now. While he still didn't have control and never got to a second bounce, the rock wasn't flying too far away from him whenever he hit it with his nose now. Jack grinned at him and chuckled. He leaned down to pick up one of the rocks Sam had pulled out of her bag and walked over to try to show his buddy the fine art of juggling with just one object.

* * *

While in another part of the galaxy... 

"DanielJackson, I have already told you that there are no shower facilities on this vessel and water storage capacity is minimal. You should refrain from washing until we reach our destination."

Daniel slumped over the sink he had been unsuccessfully using to try to wash some of the dried, stinking swamp muck off his face, hands and head. "Teal'c, I know you said that, but don't these things have hidden reserves somewhere? I have to get some of this stuff off of me."

Teal'c opened his mouth to respond when there was a large bang and the ship they had finally acquired lurched violently.


	33. Bad Start to the Day

A/N: Hi – thanks again for reading this, even after all this time. And special thanks for all of the kind words about it.

* * *

Chapter 33 – Bad Start to the Day 

There was a hint of color in the eastern sky when Rover returned from his breakfast hunt the next morning to find his favorite people struggling to get out of their coverings. He couldn't actually see them, just saw the sleeping bag moving about as the two were squirming around inside, making noises now and then. It was obvious to Rover they needed help, so he bounded over, grabbed part of the bag and tugged. Hard.

"Agh!" Jack quickly turned when the sleeping bag was literally ripped off of his back. In doing so, he jerked his leg over and knocked his knee into a tree root protruding from the ground. The string of expletives that followed would have made his drill sergeant blush.

Even though Rover was telepathic, he hadn't experienced Jack really angry yet, so he naturally interpreted his current mood as being absolutely ecstatic that the dragon had just saved them from certain death at the hands of a vicious sleeping bag. The shouts were loud thank you's and exclamations of Rover's greatness. So he proudly started prancing around, wagging his tail enthusiastically, elated that he could help.

As Jack calmed down, one of the many thoughts streaming through his head was that he hoped that Danny and Teal'c were having a better start to their day, wherever they may be.

* * *

Teal'c looked about as tense as he ever looked, which meant he was staring intently at the view screen. "The main drive is damaged. We must turn back to the planet now, before it fails completely and strands us in space." 

"Back to the muck planet? No. Can't we make it to another planet first? I've seen you do some amazing things with these ships. Can't you, you know..." He waived his hands around, "...fix it?"

Teal'c just turned slightly to Daniel and gave him 'the look'.

Daniel sighed. "It's just that I'm really starting to itch and this stench is really getting to me. My eyes haven't stopped watering since we got to that planet in the first place."

"I am afraid there is no other option, we must turn back. I do not enjoy your odor either, but surely you agree it is better to have your senses assaulted and be alive to experience it than to be dead from an explosion of the spacecraft." He had already turned the ship around and was concentrating on the best approach to get them close to the stargate. Telling DanielJackson they needed to turn back was just a formality. There was another bang and a violent lurch of the craft as they started to enter the atmosphere of the planet. "I suggest you enter one of the escape pods. I do not think I can safely land this vessel in its current state. I will endeavor to take us over the area of the stargate so that the pods will land near it and shorten our journey back."

Daniel walked over to one of the escape pods and stared at it. He'd already been in one of these things on two separate occasions, neither of which was a pleasant memory. He got in and strapped himself in, but left the door open, hoping Teal'c would pull off a miracle and actually land safely.

* * *

"The escape pods will launch in 10 seconds." Teal'c called as he strode to another pod, strapped himself in and closed the door. 

Daniel closed his pod and didn't have to wait long for the sudden roller coaster feeling of the pod being launched and subsequently buffeted by air currents on its swift descent to the planet surface. This trip would surely come back to haunt him in future nightmares. Just when he thought he might lose his lunch, his pod hit the surface with a spectacular splash. The continued constant up and down motion of the pod told Daniel that he had landed in water and was currently floating. He decided to try to get out of the pod quickly before it realized it was probably too heavy to continue floating and sink.

Opening the door caused the pod to pitch to the side and tip over, dumping him into the water. He was in the middle of an extremely slimy pond. His one bit of good luck for the day was that it was only about waist deep, so he wouldn't drown. Or was that bad luck at this point? He started to move and found the pond had a very soft bottom and his boots kept getting stuck as he tried to trudge to the shore.

As he made his journey, he noticed that Teal'c's pod had landed in a tree. It was the only tree Daniel could see anywhere nearby. It had broken through the upper branches and came to rest in a vertical position in some lower branches, so that it was only about a foot off of the ground. The Jaffa only had to open the pod and step out onto solid ground. He waited for Daniel to work his way over to him.

By the time he had reached the shore, Daniel was muttering to himself. "Of course. Only tree and solid ground anywhere within sight and he manages to land there."

Teal'c just raised his eyebrow and started to stride in the direction of the stargate once Daniel had reached him.


	34. Is Anyone Out There?

A/N: Thanks again for reading this and for the positive feedback.

Jolinar13 – up all night reading it? I'm honored.

Now back to the story.

* * *

Chapter 34 – Is Anyone Out There?

Jack left Sam to patiently explain to Rover that he shouldn't panic if he ever saw them, um, 'wrestling' together again, no matter how much it looked like the sleeping bag was trying to kill them. Meanwhile he walked off his frustration and worked the soreness from his knee. After a quick breakfast, they packed up their little camp, including a hastily duct-taped sleeping bag, and went up to the top of the mountain to take a look around in the daylight. It was a beautiful, clear day – perfect for examining the surrounding countryside. They both scanned everything they could see with their binoculars for any signs of, well, anything.

"I got nothing." Jack was getting frustrated, the sun was starting to climb and the day was going to be hot. They had climbed all the way up here to see something, but there was nothing to be seen.

"What about out there." Sam pointed towards the western sky. There was a very faint smudge in the sky, barely even noticeable, but it could be a wisp of smoke.

Jack turned to Rover. "Rover, can you see anything?"

The dragon looked at Jack. He had spent the morning gazing only westward, not scanning all directions they way they had. He looked towards the west again and then looked at Jack and shook his head.

"Have you ever seen a town or anything while flying around?"

Rover just shook his head again.

"Do you know what a town looks like?"

Rover just shook his head again.

"But... wha... you said... You're the one who suggested we come up here!"

Rover just looked at Jack blankly for a moment and started to look westward again.

"Rover," Sam decided to give it a shot. "What made you think we might see something from up here?"

He looked at her and instantly an image of a dragon appeared in her head. It wasn't him, but one that looked older. Its scales were more defined and its spikes longer. There was age-old wisdom in its eyes and a nasty looking scar on one of its ears. There was also a feeling of warmth that accompanied the image. Sam contemplated the message for a moment. "Did another dragon tell you there were people out there?"

He quickly nodded his head.

"Can you fly straight up a few hundred feet and see if you see anything further up? And send us a picture of what you're seeing, in case you're not sure what you're looking for?"

At this, he perked up a bit – always wanting to help his adopted family in any way he could. He leaped into the air and started circling higher and higher. Jack and Sam started seeing images in their mind of the surrounding area. Trees... trees... lake... oh, more trees... And, wait, what was that...

"Jack, that almost looks like a cultivated field. What do you think?"

It was on the very edge of what they could see and the distance made it slightly blurry. Jack considered the image for a moment, looked up at Rover to see in which direction he was looking and turned to Sam. "It's possible. He's looking in roughly the same direction as that smudge in the sky. There maybe something worth seeing out there."

After Rover had been flying for a while and not sending any other images of interest, he came back down and landed near Jack and Sam.

Jack set his compass for the direction they wanted to travel. They picked up their packs and started walking towards the western slope of the mountain. At this, Rover immediately started getting agitated. He snorted at them to get their attention and shook his head when they looked at him. He took a couple of steps backwards in the opposite direction, hoping they would follow.

"Come on Rover, we're going this way." Jack was pointing over his shoulder. He turned and started walking again.

With Jack's back turned towards him, Rover bounded over to him, grabbed a hold of one of his boots with his mouth, and caused him to trip and fall flat on his face.

"Jack! Are you ok?" Sam was instantly kneeling next to him to try to help.

After spitting out some dirt and leaves, Jack glared at his little friend. "Very funny. Playtime's over now. Let's get going."

He got up, dusted himself off and started walking again.

At this, Rover grunted, and grabbed Jack's pack. He then planted his feet on the ground, effectively stopping Jack from walking any further. "Rover!" When he let go of the pack to let Jack turned towards him, he started to shake his head again.

Sam looked at the display and asked, "Rover, did your mom tell you not to go near the people over there?"

"?"

Sam thought about the dragon image he had sent her, "Your mom."

He then understood and nodded his head.

"Did she say there would be danger there?"

"?"

"Uh, that you would get hurt if you went there?"

His ears turned backwards and lay flat against his head in a show of fear. He slowly nodded his head again.

"Jack, it could be the people in the town don't like dragons, or are afraid of them. Or it could just be she didn't want him wondering off before he could fully protect himself."

Jack walked over and patted the still distressed dragon on the head. "Hey, you know we'd never let anyone hurt you, right?"

He slowly nodded his head again.

Jack slowly knelt down and stared into scared eyes. "We have to go see these people. As much as I like the company and solitude out here, if Sam had gotten hurt any worse than she was, she might not have made it without a doctor. We'd all be better off with people around. We'll protect you."

Rover continued to stare at Jack.

Sam knelt down next to Jack. "Rover, can you sense people you don't know, before you even see them?"

"?"

"I mean, when those bad people came and tried to hurt me, you were nowhere around, but showed up to help shortly after they got here. Did you know they were there before you saw them?"

Rover nodded his head.

Jack thought about that for a moment. "Ok, here's what we can do. You travel by foot with us. If you're not in the air, they won't see you from a distance. The minute you sense anyone or anything that's not Sam or me, you let us know. We'll have the warning to hide you and see what their intentions towards a dragon might be. And if anything should happen to us, I want you to fly as quickly as possible, just above the tree line, back to our cave. We'll know to look for you there."

After both Sam and Jack spent a bit more time reassuring Rover that they would all be ok, he hesitantly agreed to follow them. They set off westward, hoping to find some friendly people.


	35. Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My

A/N: Thanks again for reading my story. I hope you like it.

Ilovesg1: You have mentioned that a couple of times, and I'm really glad you're enjoying it. It's great to hear that. liketoread: This really is turning out quite a bit longer than I had planned, my original outline called for 10 chapters, but Rover just kept demanding more screen time. :)

* * *

Chapter 35 – Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My

Just as Jack and Sam started down the mountain to see if they could find some people, a thought occurred to Sam. "You said you left a sign for anyone looking for us, Jack?"

"Oh. Yeah, I did." Jack spun around to find what he was looking for and pointed. "I left a note in the crater area."

Sam couldn't help but smile at the simplicity. Right in the middle of what used to be the field surrounding the stargate, was: 'S + J' written out in what looked like rocks and branches.

"I figured if anyone came looking for us in particular, that would let them know we were still alive and should start scanning for us and our radios. The Goa'uld don't normally use our first names, or use english letters, so maybe they might not understand what it was if they saw it." He shrugged as he explained it and Sam just shook her head and started walking down the incline. He couldn't help teasing, "I resisted the urge to draw a heart around it, but we could go back and do that if you want."

* * *

The first day of their travels from the mountain was uneventful. They mainly walked in companionable silence. Jack took point to keep an eye out for 'lions and tigers and bears' with Rover bounding around between them. The creature was surprisingly quiet even with the exuberance he displayed while trotting along the ground with them, occasionally darting through some trees after some unseen prey. Late in the afternoon of the second day, Rover pounced onto Sam's back, pushing her into Jack, causing them both to fall to the ground. He then stood over them with his wings stretched out over them, looking around the forest in every direction.

Jack stifled a groan, realizing he must have sensed something and whispered, "What's up, buddy? Is something out there?"

The dragon nodded, while still looking around the trees in every direction, trying to pinpoint the flicker of intelligence he had detected. Jack slowly stood up, pulled the sleeping bag off his pack and started to unroll it. "Rover, I appreciate the protection, but, I really think you should be the one hiding at the moment. Come here." He walked over to some heavy brush. "Get under this."

At first Rover just shook his head, pushing Sam back to the ground under his wing when she started to get up as well. Jack just whispered more strongly. "Rover. Your mom warned you not to come this way for a reason. I'm not about to let you get hurt because I made you come with us. Now, get under here!"

The young dragon slowly crept over to the brush and got under it, curling up in a tight ball, much like a cat. Jack covered him with the cammo sleeping bag and then covered that with brush. "Now stay under there until either I tell you it's ok, or after you don't sense anyone anymore and you can safely get back to the cave without anyone seeing you."

By this time Sam had crawled over to the cover of a tree and had pulled out her binoculars and was scanning the area for signs of anything Rover might have sensed. Jack took up a position a short distance away where he could cover her as well as look around for anyone or anything.

After a few tense moments they heard a noise, almost like a faint, slow drum beat. It was a steady, low pitched thump, thump, thump that slowly started to get noticeably louder. Sam thought she recognized the sound, but was having trouble placing it. Then there was a screech. Long and terrifying, it caused even the hardened soldiers to feel their chests constrict with fear. If it had been closer, it would have been deafening, but thankfully, the creature was still some distance away. Immediately Sam recognized the drum beat as the sound of an adult dragon in flight. When Rover flew, his wings didn't make quite the same sound, yet.

"?"

Jack was closer to the young dragon and urgently whispered to him. "Rover, stay there! And DON'T think about ANYTHING! If there's another dragon out there, I don't want it sensing you."

"?"

"NOTHING! Blank your mind and don't worry about us, we'll be fine."

As the beat of the wings got steadily louder they heard another sound – that of an occasional shout. A few more moments and they saw a large shadow pass overhead. Then there was some crashing of branches and brush as three large men came running through the woods towards them. "This way! We've got the monster afraid of us now!"

As they came within a few feet of Jack, the lead man stopped and his companions came to a stop behind him, looking at the strangely clad man holding an unknown object pointed towards them as if it were a weapon. Each man was carrying a spear and very large crossbow with huge, nasty looking quarrels. Their imposing figures made Teal'c look small. They each wore brown leather pants, boots and vests, leaving their massive arms visible. Each of the three had scars on their faces, hands or arms. The arm of one of the men was almost completely covered in what Jack could only guess was scarring from an extensive burn. "Greetings." The lead man spoke with a deep rumble of a voice. He looked to the side and saw Sam several feet away, behind another tree holding the same type of object he did not recognize pointed towards him. "Fear not, we will save you from the beast."

Jack slowly stood, still holding his P-90 trained on the lead man. "You three are going to save us from that? Yeah sure, ya betcha." Somehow he couldn't picture it. Sure they were large and apparently brave enough, but if little Rover could take out 4 armed Jaffa, not to mention their ship, he kind of doubted the chances Moe, Larry and Curly had with a fully grown dragon.

Sam slowly stood as well, but stayed where she was, several feet away from them. "Why are you hunting it?"

The three immediately laughed. "Why?" The leader turned towards Jack, eyes glinting with a mocking glare. "I realize females cannot be smart, but does your woman not know anything?" He then turned towards Sam and using the tone of voice one might use with a child, he stated. "The monster is evil. It kills for sport and thinks nothing of devouring your livestock." He then turned back towards Jack and stood a little taller, evidently proud of himself. "We have made it our life's work to rid our world of these beasts. This one that we track is one of the last of its kind, due to our vigilance. You should be grateful, without us, your lives would be far more difficult."

Great, Sam thought, she really loved macho idiots. "Have you ever tried to get along with them? Maybe communicate with them?"

Another round of laughter at the ignorant female. Then there was a flash of shadow. "Get down!" The men all scrambled for cover, while Sam stood standing a moment too long, her anger slowing her reaction time slightly. It was, unfortunately, enough. A huge dragon swooped down through the trees and landed in front of her. It stood staring at her, its lips curled in a snarl while a deep growl emanated from its throat. Realizing if she moved now, she would instantly be fried, all Sam could do was stand and stare at the behemoth before her.


	36. The Slayers

A/N: Thanks again for reading my story.

Diane: I've always loved that line from the Nox.

* * *

Chapter 36 – The Slayers

Sam stood like a deer trapped in headlights, staring at a fully grown dragon growling and snarling at her. Earth's smartest brain had completely shut down at the sight before her. Then her own words came back to haunt her as she heard her own voice in her head, 'Have you ever tried to get along with them? Maybe communicate with them?' She very slowly let go of her gun and started to raise her hands, palms outward, hoping the creature would take that as a sign of peace while she tried to calm her mind and project thoughts of warmth and calm. "Easy there, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to be your friend."

As she stood there, trying to make soothing sounds and thoughts, she started to sense something, anger, hatred, and then, also a little confusion. The dragon hadn't advanced on her, which she took as a good sign, hoping she could somehow convince it to leave them alone. Then she sensed something else, fear, no, more intense than that – terror. But that wasn't coming from the large dragon before her. It must have sensed it, too, because it immediately turned it's head from her, and focused on some heavy brush several feet from her.

Its growl grew louder and it started to move towards where Rover was hiding, the anger and hatred she had sensed now getting stronger. Sam ran to get in front of it, waving her hands at the beast. "No! We're friends!" Jack, who had until now been behind a tree with his gun aimed at the dragon, afraid to move for fear he'd get Sam hurt, but ready to run out and sacrifice himself to protect her, had run out also and was now putting himself between Sam and the dragon, one hand in the air, one still on his weapon. "Stop!"

The dragon reared up on its hind legs and stared at the people before it, the confusion back for a moment. Then it started to inhale deeply and Jack raised his gun to shoot. Before either could attack, there was a buzz and a thwack, and the dragon roared out, turning to his side. One of the dragon slayers had shot it with his crossbow, while the other two were taking aim.

Quicker than any of them could believe, it reached out and grabbed one of the slayers, his torso in its mouth. Jack took the opportunity to push Sam behind a large tree and ready his weapon again. By the time he looked back at the scene, the dragon had its head held high and was violently shaking the slayer in it mouth like a rag doll. Another thwack of a crossbow caused it to drop the man who hit the ground with a sickening crunch. When it looked down to pinpoint the direction of the latest attack, it saw two flashes. A blue flash came from the golden haired 'man' and hit the one who had just attacked. Then there was also a flash of fire from the small dragon it had sensed, hitting another of the brown men. There was a shout the dragon did not understand from one of the green men, "Rover! No!"

The dragon's confusion returned. It had never seen a man attack one of its own rather than a dragon before. Nor had another dragon ever come to its aid. It didn't sense the hatred in the green men that normally accompanied humans. There was also the question of why men would try to prevent it from attacking a dragon. Men wanted all dragons dead, didn't they? It wanted to kill everyone there, but was no longer certain it should. It looked down at the green men. They were pointing their weapons and backing away, but not firing. They hadn't attacked when they had the chance. In its current state of injuries, they could have killed it, but they did not try. It could also sense them communicating with the smaller dragon, who seemed to trust them. With its pain addled mind, it was too much for the creature to ponder. It watched as they continued to back away. Seeing that the ones who had been chasing him and had attacked him were no longer moving, it decided to go back to its home and tend to its wounds.

Jack and Sam tensely watched as the dragon leaped into the air and flew away. Once it was gone, they ran back to the slayers to see if they could help them. The one Sam had zatted was starting to stir. Other than the shock of the zat, he had remained uninjured. He was lucky, if Sam hadn't knocked him down after he shot the dragon, it probably would have killed him next. His two companions were dead.

They helped the man sit up and gave him Jack's canteen to drink from. Once his senses had cleared he looked at Sam in awe, unaware that she'd been the one to knock him out. "I have never seen such a sight. The beast did not kill you when you stood before it."

"Yeah, well, that's my little woman, fearless Dr. Dolittle of dragons." Sam glared at Jack's comment. He just put up his hands in surrender and said, "What?"

Sam then turned to the slayer. "They're intelligent creatures. If you hadn't been trying to kill it, you might have been able to communicate with it. Your friends might still be alive."

"No. It is not possible. Maybe the shine of your golden hair confused it for a moment, but they are heinous monsters, intent only on killing."

Sam looked over the man's shoulder to where Rover was hiding in the bushes several yards behind him. "What if I told you a dragon once saved my life?"

The man laughed and looked at Jack.

Jack just nodded. "She's telling the truth. We owe a lot to a dragon and have become friends with him. He can communicate with us."

After trying to persuade the man to give up hunting dragons for over an hour, Jack decided they were at a stalemate. The man refused to think anything other than that the creatures were inherently evil and unintelligent. Facing that kind of ignorance and stubbornness, they made sure Rover stayed hidden, so there would be no problems later. They then helped him bury his friends and parted company after he confirmed the existence of a farming village two days further to the west. After he had disappeared through the trees, they waited until Rover no longer sensed anyone in the area before allowing him to come out of hiding.


	37. Seeing Spots

A/N: Thanks again for the kind words and for reading my story.

* * *

Chapter 37 – Seeing Spots

Airman Peters, the guard at the ground level elevator check in at the Cheyenne Mountain complex, liked his job. Ok, if he were honest, when he signed up for the Air Force, he envisioned working at an airfield and watching jets all day, maybe even flying in one, but his post here was good. It wasn't a difficult job and while his security clearance only permitted him on the first level of the complex (you needed higher and higher clearances the further down you went) it still impressed the ladies to say he was posted at the top secret facility. He'd heard the rumors around town of what went on deeper in the mountain, and the rumors the guards traded amongst themselves would make the stories on even the most outlandish conspiracy theory web site look tame. But they were just rumors. Of course he wasn't a dumb man, and he couldn't see how much work they could do on deep space radar telemetry 25 levels under the base of a mountain. And then there was the man walking towards him.

He always felt a nervous prickle at the back of his neck when this man went through the check point, particularly whenever he had to ask him to stop so that he could inspect whatever he was carrying. He much preferred to just check his ID against the computer and waive him through. It wasn't that the man was belligerent or annoying or anything. In fact, he was the complete opposite, always polite, well spoken and patient. However, he was huge and always deadly serious, never showing even a hint of a smile. He gave you the impression that if you crossed him, even just a little, he would snap you in two just as soon as look at you. Peters had even witnessed him silence General O'Neill with just a look once, and the General wouldn't take that from anyone else. There was also the matter of his name, or lack thereof. He had the highest clearance level for the base, however, he had no rank in any of the services, nor even a first and last name. He simply went by Teal'c, more of a code name in Peters' mind than a name. He envisioned the man as part of some super secret shadow ops company, which made him wonder what job the man did in the lowest levels of the complex. Today he was carrying a large, lumpy bag that would need to be inspected.

Peters nervously opened the bag to begin the inspection as Teal'c stood straight, with his hands clasped behind his back. He was surprised at what he found inside and might have cracked a joke were the owner anyone else on base. However, in light of who this was, it was just more disturbing in his eyes. After thoroughly inspecting the contents of the bag, he allowed the large man to pass into the complex.

As Teal'c picked up his bag, he turned to the guard. "AirmanPeters, word of what I am carrying will reach no one, is that understood?"

The order caught Peters off guard, "Uh, oh, yes, sir. Of course, sir. No one will know, sir."

With a slight incline of his head towards the guard, Teal'c turned and continued into the mountain.

* * *

It was 2345 hours. O'Neill had once commented that the best time to sneak anything, or anyone, into or out of the infirmary was 15 minutes before a shift change. At that time, the staff would have finished their final rounds and would be busy with last minute paperwork before the new shift arrived. Due to the late hour, the rest of the SGC was also quiet with few people around the darkened halls. Teal'c crept into the infirmary to DanielJackson's bed, a large, quiet shadow in the night.

The archaeologist had been confined to the infirmary two days ago, immediately upon their return from planet muck. He was exhibiting signs of a rash, an allergic reaction to the swamp gunk he was covered in. At first it started out as dime-sized, bright red splotches all over his skin and related areas, including nails and hair. Then it quickly changed, the color turning to a bright blue. The rash itself was harmless enough, so he would probably be released from the infirmary in the morning, but due to the coloring, he would be confined to the base until it went away. Teal'c paused to look at his friend, then unwrapped the bundle he carried and carefully placed the item under the sleeping man's arm. There was a flash of light and then the shadow that was Teal'c was gone before he was detected by staff. In the morning, Nurse Halloway would check on her favorite patient to find him snuggled up with a fuzzy white teddy bear with bright blue polka dots.

The morale around the SGC had definitely fallen in the weeks since the loss of O'Neill and ColonelCarter. DanielJackson's confinement prevented the only team actively searching for a way to bring them home, from accomplishing the task. Teal'c knew that a little levity was needed to improve spirits around the base and knew, had O'Neill been there, his friend's ailment would be the target for the much needed relief. With that in mind, he had gone to the local toy store and purchased all of the spotted stuffed animals he could find. And so that O'Neill would not be disappointed at missing his friend in such a state, he also decided to capture as much on film as possible, starting with taking a picture of the spotted man holding a spotted teddy bear in his sleep.


	38. A New Chapter!

A/N: Hi and sorry it's taken so long to post this. I've been having internet connection problems which has been irritating to say the least. I've been going through fanfiction withdrawal. :)

* * *

Chapter 38 – A New Chapter! 

After two days, Jack and Sam were sitting on a hill overlooking a valley in which there was a farming village. It was late in the afternoon and they had spent an hour observing the village and the surrounding area with their binoculars. There was no sign of Jaffa or Goa'uld presence anywhere. It was just a small, seemingly untouched town of simple people.

Jack spoke first, "Well, there goes my hope of finding a nice big space port to fly off this rock. Or even just someone advanced enough to challenge your mind for a bit while we wait for Danny and T to show up."

Sam had been thinking along a similar line. It's not that she wouldn't enjoy spending some time in what appeared to be a nice idyllic village, but a space port would have been nice. "At least we've found people."

They watched the village until twilight started making it hard to observe the people, then made their way back to where Rover was hiding. They had found a small opening in a hillside that opened into a small cave. It was big enough for the three of them to rest comfortably, while the opening that led to it was small enough where they all had to crawl a short distance to get inside. It was the perfect place for Rover to stay while they found out what kind of people were in the village. The opening was too small for an adult dragon to fit through, should one happen along, and also small enough where they didn't think an adult human would bother to enter while they were away. They just had to convince Rover to stay there while they went into town the next day. He was being rather stubborn that he needed to stay with them for their protection.

"?"

"You can't come with us. It might be dangerous." Jack continued the argument with the dragon.

At this, Rover started to growl, deep in his throat. He crouched low, curling his upper lip to show a row of sharp teeth and extending his claws, scratching them on the floor in as menacing a stance as he could. After a moment, he snorted a small ball of fire towards Jack. He was far enough away that the flame dissipated before coming close to his friend. Sam realized that Rover was trying to look like a threat, but knowing him the way she did, all she could see was that he looked cute, kind of like a puppy that tries to threaten a fully grown dog by barking its squeaky, puppy bark at it. Jack got the point. Not quite successfully hiding his smirk, he continued. "I know, you can be dangerous too, but we don't know what these people are like or what kind of weapons they may have."

"?"

"Sam and I have our weapons and we've fought through some pretty bad odds before. If need be, we should be able to take care of ourselves."

"?"

It finally dawned on Jack that Rover had never seen their P-90's in action, he'd only seen the zat, if he was even paying attention when Sam used it against the one dragon slayer. He had been busy attacking the other slayer at the time.

"OK, you see this?" He held up his gun for Rover to see. "It probably doesn't look like much to you, but it is deadly... to people at least. Under the right circumstances, I could probably kill or disable everyone in that village with this if I had to. And Sam's an even better shot with hers."

Rover walked up and sniffed at the gun, then he tentatively licked it and shook his head at the taste. He looked back and forth between the gun, Sam and Jack, still not believing they would be adequately protected without him.

"Besides, we're human, like them, and a lot more apt to be accepted than you would be. I'm sorry to have to break this to you, but humans can be pretty ignorant and short-sighted at times."

"?"

"They don't know any better. If all they know of dragons is stories told by people like that slayer, they won't know how great you are. There's a reason your mom told you not to come out this way."

Rover visibly sagged at the reminder. Caught between the warning and the desire to protect his friends, he sent one last glare towards Jack before picking up one of his rocks and walking over towards the cave opening to lay down.

* * *

Early the next morning, Jack and Sam set off towards the village. After another long discussion with their young charge, they had managed to make him agree to wait in hiding. They promised him they would mentally keep in touch and call him if they wound up in danger in any way. As they approached their destination they saw a man tending a field and walked up to him. 

"Greetings friends. I do not think we've met before. I am Jonan. Welcome to Ixnia." The fair haired man smiled at them. His skin was deeply tanned and leathery from working in the fields for many years, but he had a twinkle in his eye to match his friendly greeting.

Jack nodded. "Hi, uh, greetings. Yeah, we're new to Icky... uh, to your town. I'm Jack, and this is my wife, Sam." At this Sam nodded and smiled at their new acquaintance. Jack continued. "We were hoping to find a place to stay, maybe find some work. How are things around here? Everything as nice as it looks?"

"Ah yes, there is always work to be done for people willing to put in a good day's labor. You should talk to Thalor. He has the largest farm and owns the fabric mill. He treats those that work for him fairly and should be able to provide a place to stay as well. If he doesn't have work for you, he will know someone who does."

"That sounds like a plan. We'll see if he can offer us anything." After speaking with Jonan for a few more moments, they found out they could find Thalor at his mill near the center of the village. They wished each other well and continued on their way, nodding and smiling at anyone they happened to pass along the way.


	39. The Shepherd and the Machinist

Hi. Thanks again for reading my story, sorry for the long delay. We're almost done with this.

* * *

Chapter 39 – The Shepherd and the Machinist 

Sam and Jack entered the Mill to find two men standing next to a large piece of machinery. One was a massive man who was as tall and muscular as Teal'c. He looked to be in his upper fifties with graying hair. He was looking down at a younger, rotund man who was sweating and looking around as if he didn't want to be under the other man's gaze.

"Can you fix it or not?" the taller man asked.

"I just need some more time. I think I figured out why it doesn't work, I just need time to fix it now." The other man smiled at the big man.

"That is what you have been saying for the past week. Either you can fix it or you can't." The older man was getting angrier, when he finally noticed they had company. His demeanor changed immediately as he turned smiling to face the strangers. "Greetings friends, how may I be of service to you?"

Jack took a step forward. "Greetings, we were told we might be able to find someone named Thalor here."

"I am Thalor." the older man's smile grew broader as he stepped forward and held out his hand. "I am the owner of this mill, and this is Timon." He said, indicating the younger man with a slight note of disdain.

"I'm Jack and this is my wife Sam." Jack shook Thalor's hand as he made the introductions.

"Welcome to Ixnia. How may I be of service to you? Are you buyers?"

"Buyers? No, I'm sorry, we're new to Ixnia and were hoping to find work and maybe a place to stay."

"Work?" Thalor looked at Jack a moment, "Are you a machinist?"

"Machinist? Well, I've been known to be able to run some equipment, drill press, lathe, that sort of thing. What would you need me to do?" Jack knew he could probably run whatever kind of machinery they might have in this place, although he only saw the one piece, which looked more like an old, complicated, Rube Goldberg looking loom thing, than any type of machinist's equipment.

"Lathe? I am unfamiliar with this term. I need someone who can fix my machine, a machinist. As you are no doubt aware, Ixnia is known in all the villages for it's fine fabrics. It is all because of my machine here." Thalor was swelling with pride as he pointed out the monstrosity next to him. "It creates a finer thread and produces the world's best fabrics. It will not work and I need it running to fill my orders. It is this machine that ensures Ixnia's prosperity. Can you fix it?" He turned to Jack with an eager look in his eyes.

Jack had started to tune him out right about where he said that Ixnia produced fine fabrics as he looked at the coarse clothing both he and the other man were wearing. He was still looking between the two men and the large machine when Thalor reached out and grabbed the cuff of Jack's sleeve.

"Where did you get this fabric? It is finer than anything I have ever seen before."

"Um, well, it's just something we brought from home, which is far, far away." Jack wasn't sure how much to tell these people yet about where they were from.

"Surely with fabric like that, you must know something about this machine and how to fix it." Thalor was now almost pleading.

"What about the people who made the machine, can't they fix it for you?" Jack questioned.

"Alas, no. It was built by Rynoldt." The tall man bowed and shook his head. "He is no longer with us."

Sam took this opportunity to speak up, "What happened to him?"

"He was... he was different. Not right in the head, if you know what I mean. He was always thinking of ways to make things do work for him. Little machines to help with seeding and planting. Then he made this machine, because his father started having difficulties with the loom as he got older. But he was always talking about wanting to fly like the birds. We warned him. We told him that people couldn't fly. He just wouldn't listen."

Jack and Sam looked at each other for a moment during the pause. "What happened?"

"He made himself a set of wings and went to the top of Answell Hill to try to fly. We buried him on the hill so he would be closer to the sky."

"Oh, we're sorry to hear that. So you've never seen anyone or anything other than birds fly? Not even in big, gold, ships?"

Thalor looked at Jack as if he'd sprouted two heads. "You know as well as I do it's not possible to fly. People are too large and too heavy."

"What about dragons? They are large and heavy, but they can fly." Jack wasn't sure what kind of reaction he would get by mentioning dragons, but hoped for something positive.

"They are magical beasts. Legends say they can do many things, but we are just people, with no such special magic. Flying is not something we could ever do. But, if you can fix my machine, I will give you a job and you may even have Rynoldt's house to live in."

Jack looked at the machine again and then back to Thalor. "I'm actually more of a soldier and fisherman myself, but Sam here could probably fix your machine and get it to run better than it ever did before."

The younger man, Timon, who had been silently watching the conversation until this point started to laugh. "A woman? Fix the machine? It's not possible. They are only fit for cooking and sewing."

Jack just smirked at the man. "I'd be careful if I were you, she can do almost anything you could, and if you still don't believe it, just ask her to arm wrestle you."

"Thalor, turn these people away, it is clear there is something wrong with them."

Thalor, however, was staring at Sam as she walked over to the machine and started examining parts of it. After a few moments, she turned to Thalor. "If I fix your machine by the end of tomorrow, will that be good enough?"

The younger man started laughing again.

Thalor nodded his head, "If you fix it by tomorrow eve, you will have a job and place to stay. I will also find work for Jack. We do not need soldiers, but our livestock does need guarding." He looked at the P-90 Jack had slung around his neck and knew it must be a weapon of some sort. "We could always use a shepherd if you are willing."

At this Timon stormed out of the mill.

Thalor shook his head. "Do not mind him, he wanted this job because he thought it would be easy. Now he must go back to the fields to earn his way."

After they finalized the arrangements for their work and housing, Jack and Sam left the mill to go back to where they had left Rover. As they exited the building, Timon walked up to Jack. "How dare you! You come into my town and take my job and my house and give it to this woman. You will pay for this." He brought his fist back and as he was about to take a swing at Jack, a rock fell from the tree above them and hit him in the head. Timon stumbled backwards and tripped over a protruding root to fall flat on his back. He got up rubbing the quickly forming bump on his head and looked up into the tree. "Even the birds are helping you!" With that he stalked away from them.

Jack looked at the very familiar, slightly damp rock that was now sitting on the ground. He picked it up and looked up into the tree. The leaves were too dense to see anything, but he knew Rover was up there somewhere. "Rover!" he whispered. "You shouldn't have come here. Don't let anyone see you."

Jack and Sam settled themselves under the tree and discussed the day's events. They wanted to wait until the sun set before they headed back to the cave with Rover, so they could avoid any unnecessary attention for now.


End file.
